Skip to main content

Full text of "Memoirs of the Horticultural Society of New York"

See other formats 


Rens 
en ecnaned 
wwe ee 0 ee 


[batt tr Panna eahnyendyiee 9mb 

Sh re rie ae 
See Se eee are peters Cae 
: saboutsenecnelishond at 


awn 
~ Se ey ory 


ATE AeA iee bene levee op 9 
7 Paberers me * 
“ 


OTE ea eee ee: 
peeve ee eee 
Near eee 

OEE a pha se ae 


2 
wal = 
SS \ 


SO / / 
4 
/ EAE 


\ 
— \ y 
@ 


LIBRAR 


Y 


Vol, 1-2 | 


<0: 


oe. 
J 


1902-07 


——— 
eo 


HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK 


(INCORPORATED 1902) 


DAE MIO: VOL, 1. 


PROCEEDINGS 


International Conference 


ON 


Plant Breeding and Hybridization 


1902 


Held in the Rooms of the American Institute of the City of New York 
And in the Museum Building of the New York Botanical Garden 


SEPTEMBER 30 and OCTOBER 1 and 2 


CONFERENCE COMMITTEE 
N. L. BRIT TON, Chairman 
F, M. HEXAMER H. A. SIEBRECHT J. DE WOLF 
LEONARD BARRON, Secretary and Editor 


ADVISORY COMMITTEE 


Prof. B. T. Galloway, Chairman, Director of the Bureau of Piant Industry, VU. S, Department 
of Agriculture. 


Oakes Ames, North Easton, Mass. 
W. Bateson, Grantchester, Cambridge, Eng. 
Michael Barker, Chicago, Il. 
S. A. Beach, Horticulturist, N. Y. State Experiment Station, Geneva, N. Y. 
P. J Berckmans, Augusta, Ga. 
J. C. Blair, Horticulturist, College of Agriculture, Urbana, III. 
L. Burbank, Experimentalist, Santa Rosa, (Call 
F. W. Burbidge, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland. 
F. H. Burnette, Horticulturist, State University, Baton Rouge, La. 
W. A. Cannon, New York Botanical Garden, New York City. 
F. W. Card, Horticulturist, College of Agriculture, Kingston, R. I. 
John Craig, Professor of University Extension, Cornell University, Ithaca, N. Y. 
K. C. Davis, Horticulturist, Experiment Station, Morgantown, W. Va. 
Hugo de Vries, Amsterdam, Holland. 
Anne Dorrance, Dorranceton, Pa. 
R. S. Eaton, Horticulturist, Kentville, N. S. 
Frank E. Emery, Agricultural Experiment Station, Laramie, Wyoming. 
S. W. Fletcher, Horticulturist, Agricultural College, Pullman, Wash. 
+ §. B. Green, Horticulturist, St. Anthony Park, Minn. 
H. H. Groff, Simcoe, Ontario. 
B. D. Halsted, Botanist and Horticulturist, State College, New Brunswick, N. J. 
N. E. Hansen, Horticulturist, State Agricultural College, Brookings, S. D. 
C. C. Hurst, Burbage, Hinckley, England. 
W. M. Hays, Agriculturist, State University, St. Anthony Park, Minn. 
H. L. Hutt, Horticulturist, Agricultural College, Guelph, Can. 
Ida B. Keller, Department of Chemistry and Biology, High School, Philadelphia, Pa. 
Maxwell T. Masters, The Gardeners’ Chronicle, London, England. 
D. Morris, Imperial Commissioner of Agriculture, Barbados. 
T. V. Munson, Denison, Texas. 
Herbert Myrick, “American Agriculturist, New York City. 
George Nicholson, Late Curator, Royal Gardens, Kew, England. 
P. O’Mara, New York City, N. Y. z 
W. Paddock, Horticulturist, Agricultural Experiment Station, Fort Collins, Col. 
L. H. Pammel, Botanist, Iowa Agricultural College, Ames, Iowa. 
C. G. Patten, Nurseryman, Charles City, Iowa. 
H. J. Patterson, Director State Experiment Station, College Park, Md. 
C. S. Plumb, Director Agricultural Experiment Station, Lafayette, Ind. 
Homer C. Price, Horticulturist, Iowa Agricultural College, Ames, Iowa. 
F. W. Rane, Horticulturist, Agricultural Experiment Station, Durham, N. H. 
H. F. Roberts, Botanist, Agricultural College, Manhattan, Kan. 
H. H. Rusby, College of Pharmacy, New York. 
E. P. Sandersten, Horticulturist, State Experiment Station, Md. 
W. Saunders, Director Experimental Farms, Dominion of Canada. 
G. E. Stone, Botanist, Hatch Experiment Station, Amherst, Mass. 
W. A. Taylor, Secretary American Pomological Society. 
W. Trelease, Botanical Garden, St. Louis, Mo. 
Tas. S. Troop, Horticulturist, Purdue University, Lafayette, Ind. i 


are 


ADVISORY COMMITTEE—Continued 


A. C. True, Director, Office of Experiment Stations, Washington, D. C. 

L. M. Underwood, Columbia University, New York City. 

Ph. de Vilmorin, Paris, France. 

C. L. Watrous, President American Pomological Society, Des Moines, Ia. 

F. A. Waugh, Horticulturist; Hatch Experiment Station, Amherst, Mass. 

H. J. Webber, Laboratory of Plant Breeding, Washington, D. C.— 

J. C. Whitten, Horticulturist, Agricultural Experiment Station, Columbia, Mo. 
E. J. Wickson, Horticulturist, University of California, Berkeley, Cal. 

E. Mead Wilcox, Biologist, Alabama Polytechnic Institute, Auburn, Ala. 
ohn H. Wilson, St. Andrew’s University, Scotland. 

A. F. Woods, Chief, Division of Vegetable Pathology and Physiology, Washington, D. C. 


— 


PATRONS 


SUBSCRIPTIONS TOWARDS THE EXPENSES OF THE CONFERENCE WERE 


FROM THE FOLLOWING: 


J. P. Morgan, 
W.E. Dodge, 
James Wood, 
N. L. Britton, 
A lah Tebeho)peneel 
D. O. Mills, 

S. Thorne, 


Miss P. Q. Thorne, 


T. A. Havemeyer, 
C. W. Ward, 

M. Carnegie, 
Mrs. Bryce, 
Mason A. Stone, 
F. L. Stetson, 

(G, (C, IRenael, 

W. Nilsson, 

W. H. S. Wood, 
H. A. Siebrecht, 
W. L. Conyngham, 
jG) Brown: 

H. P. Frothingham, 
J. D. Archbold, 
Sel eetenrs: 


F. W. Bruggerhof, 
Gs Allen; 

G. W. Perkins, 
Mrs. H. Dormitzer, 
W. H. Parsons, 
Mrs. E. Herrman, 
Mrs. L. T. Valentine, 
Nicola Tesla, 

H. H. Rusby, 

G. A. Archer, 

H. F. Walker, 
Miss J. R. Cathcart, 
G. T. Powell, 

Mrs. T. K. Gibbs, 
Mrs. H. J. Aldrich, 
A. G. Mills, 

C. Pryer, 

Mrs. Dwight, 

M. Barker, 

E. F. S. Arnold, 


J. de Wolf, 


Eee eeowell: 


RECEIVED 


MEMBERS OF THE CONFERENCE 


THE FOLLOWING REGISTERED WITH THE SECRETARY. 


pace Eatin EE sess ts Le of 5 Sete tech ie Pa era Pate» SR Brookings, So. Dak. 
Wyma dd OGlet Mary cet, scree omic seis aN inoh alt ree cette cnn Fort Collins, Col. 
Re Pere Patan: Sree het syst Aas cea Sahet os aos wate mice ee toate Washington, D. C. 
(Sans BART OWS s Are ere cece GE eeOns, Seas Pere eee on ee Des Moines, Ia. 
Wve OREU bas Sone cen cca nine mie. is Pet ware wR aie pede eieye s Washington, D. C. 
VEEN ES Pel OOU Mop 4 2 cw cl dsl. wateahe Seey up asec abe Blacksburg, Va. 
Pepe eNO meen eye tina ince nad sac se eet es Rem eile ws Three Rivers, Mich. 
kee Nee May ate Peer geet oe se Sees Ae Oe Re Rene ow ee Guelph, Canada: 
Easels ltr iter ay ure he eer bryan rae oe Ades Ocoee ed Guelph, Canada. 
Mee Me Wiaicounigee rc te tr. ore erie oro coer cette oe iies oe Ottawa, Canada. 
ESR EDI ODELESS ro ee Merge eae ne rae cei a hoe nae Manhattan, Kansas. 
Meese Ey oON GIL LO eke suctiic Pee! skeet e 30 Sa therach wip ctve so fe selareie shea Washington, D. C. 
Been) SONS TIENT otc Poy eee nee etre Ata waive Soke UTD he ee RE Roseville, N. J. 
TEVA oie aa lea A te a Ly hehe oe Detroit, Mich. 
em SCOUT Renee vas, che aia. d ees aca Sis ad ae sae ee Dept. of Agriculture. 
Vi Tee SIs jai ane ates A A oD em yt aie eae on eee Ren a Dept. of Agriculture. 
FEpemmcores litters ewe ca rr Stes ae ge rercre es oo buses c, Povave neo 2 is, Sik ee, mean gee St. Louis, Mo. 
iGgaiCeSniaeMgn chan. x .ajarcblcnice oo aectaemiee cine ee ee oe Dorranceton, Pa. 
PAULI CMMI) Oe CLILE Grins ci Saye in ote, oh orepshecs cubes tiie rash aE Me Meade Dorranceton, Pa. 
feed) ie ed CEC Tenet or cis oysaracc Me wie e POR ee Ce Caen Washington, D. C. 
Alp IEP VILE wets te ele 2 st conto bie -ehicaatl teat i ioe IO ae Aes Lincoln, Neb. 
ee AOE ger. cashcpe tte sot. clive Gd i! eg e atat oe arte ee Oe Urbana, Il. 
So TEMAS, SNA ane ae Aen RI ee ae od pale My ate Oo Bloral Park, Ne OY¥e 
VV eeelViSS Sl iayS teeta sere cee: eon Serene tire Maven a etd Oe St. Anthony Park, Minn. 
WSIS ESOT yey i cease stole orcrcenegere mets he ee oe Ae aes ook ReaS Cambridge, England. 
(cone NiGholson: ss: eidiastiss cee ee Bein ae Sete Richmond, England. 
NV bees Ela Piatt. © iy el ac hadi pester! ape aaa. s wt aes oe esha ne Washington, D. C. 
SPO TAGeite wie tts eh sai c hres ree, Brite ae Briarcliff Manor, N. Y. 
Ge. Beattianvromithe Seo ear peso nae se keine U. S. Dept. of Agriculture. 
ebas.: Wie Wahl nace net enc ene a ee a Leiere otc oF Queens, L. I. 
Bred-WiaGandeti ae omied... eee ee eee eee cre anne thee Kingston, R. I. 
Walling Baweett. 02.2 5c ven oe ae eee ree crime Kingston, Jamaica. 
DGeakatr chil dieses \.octtocrec Cine ieee sacra eee care Washington, D. C. ~ 
lee CIP TICE Ys. 0.2 25d. ie" (eacic's Tae Ree RE tee eer oases eal Sie ede, ae Ames, lowa. 
Bieter. MAGES. Sols. ye vias So oe + Rote ee ates N. Y. Botanical Garden. 
IDES So-0- 5 1 ass 2 n'a Soe ee Coe leis enna ae Barbados, West Indies. 
PELTRE BINEMGCET yo /a:5 <isieved's ais are ie Sea eaves Se Jamaica Plain, Mass. 
°S Vie Das Sc. 25 aia ane aoe ge OR AOR rir Cea ARE ee EIR Ithaca, N. Y. 
Aree Ce GORE LE cet) och bo Roce, ee RE ae aT ca tot oe Washington, D. C. 


See Allen 2.225. 2 ha) Gb 5 aR ee Madison, Wis. 
Saul veel SIGS EW eee ence ee ae ee Staten Island, N, Y. 
ete ig ytiSst ss cues Ais secs cesses. Teachers’ College, New York City. 
Eee OUMSOTle 2 PA tes see eiiickn Pedicle ae oes Johns Hopkins, Baltimore, Md. 
Ces. \WRIIEICO TRS ARR Ge Ocs, 8 AOE Rett Ane a New York. 
“itn. Ty Sige i elins Sere Sas eSB tis a ce ee anne Ne a ee Boston, Mass. 
BRP ee IGE. be Oe os ci nese Balin peices teas Croton-on-Hudson, N. Y. 
(PTR, Wailer sbV es 0 acre See pili ie Ane ca eae eer Ridgewood, N. J. 
Duh aaling; Mise ESTE ce Sk ee eae as Briarcliff Manor, N. Y. 
(HE TICT SS ITE A Ae eet ate Sex iad New York City. 
oP SE SICTA Fes a es eA ne Ottawa, Canada. 
Herbert T. Crouse..... PATO eee Briarcliff Manor, N. Y. 
jens (Si IMIShi eS oe A ee New York City. 
0. IN. ANGST se eee es NS cerengie 2S chet Oe Sat oh ere eee College Park, Md. 
oo CSRS ae OE pes ae A ee i os aon ee a ea ee ee Simcoe, Ont. 
on LEE IS See Brees 0 oe a ae Nr Geneva, N. Y. 
Teh BL. BST e Ry ay CII ese Sees pep eh BARR Oe ee ae Poughkeepsie. 
Ot Blac eee ales gee it Se Sts ieee Geneva, N. Y. 
PMRIPMVITSNSOn- ANd: Wil. tcn co sje os co cat eee he eco ete ties Denison, Tex. 

AL. TE, TIGRE AP seas icky 2 io eee cto New Brunswick, N. J. 
22 ES VUSIC (ESBS SC 7 A asl eer Philadelphia, Pa. 
SM MMEIEISR res ae Pe sie tole Sie cala sag are seen hbase New York. 
Chins. 1B, Sevatavalerese Se hs Ae ty elt ee tere ee Ottawa, Ont. 
co bd Reet BR was ee ee, Se Washington, D. C. 
8 BASTARD a Briarcliff Manor, N. Y. 
1 geirelie (OF DM IGU reo Soo ban ols Ack Hc ae amen ce re ROR ae New York City. 
ENE rat og ct ho eS TN ects i es a Millbrook, N. Y. 
Jigen. “TET NWWATT OUST FSI 5 scien Rees ac Rs Jersey City, N. J. 
ninye TN), ACRONIS 5 SoBe gt ie tee cet oe Washington, D.C. 
TEES SOS 2S Eo ea ee West Grove, Pa. 
MG COLPIEM VOT ALG musi ssoye fot. Ses ea ee ios tae esd ears Three Rivers, Mich. 
RRM icra tee oe yas bees New York City. 
who. LO Mieminnabiveyel Ss hes xh Saya ae St. Albans, Eng. 
Ly, ZIGIPSEIEISTITON PY CoRR GS ARS 0 ihc. © IES Ree Madison, N. J. 
RB ecg MON ALCON Eset eis cies tes vise css wfc bule's ed's shpat a Millneck, N. Y. 
AO hte cin os wis oo occ ss svi coe cles same edies New York, N. Y. 


COMPLIMENTARY EXCURSION 


On the day following the last business session of the Conference the 
Council of the Horticultural Society of New York invited the delegates 
and members of the Conference to an excursion up the Hudson River, under 
the guidance of Mr. James Wood, president, who explained the various 
points of interest passed en route. A landing was made at Poughkeepsie, 
where conveyances met the party, and Fern Tor, the home of Mr. F. R. 
Newbold, treasurer of the Society, was visited, by invitation. Here the 
party was entertained, and, after a short rest, the estate of Mr. F. W. Van- 
derbilt, at Hyde Park, was visited, Mrs. Vanderbilt receiving the visitors, 
and accompanying them around the gardens and farm. This place is notable 
as the site of Dr. Hosack’s old home, where many fine specimen trees are to 
be seen. The party returned to New York City by train. 

The hearty thanks of the Conference Committee is due to Mr. New- 
bold and the Misses Newbold for their very hospitable reception and enter- 
tainment. 


The following persons attended this excursion: 


(Gea Zanini Cals Wattous, 
R. M. Kellogg, lee le @rotse: 
lal, Ib. Laiting S. W. Underhill, 
S. A. Beach, M. M. Shaw, 

G. T. Powell, S. Fraser, 

Mrs. G. 71. Powell, A. Shaw, 

W. Paddock, Mrs. F. Willard, 
N. L. Britton, S. Henshaw, 
Mrs. N. L. Britton, J. B. Norton, 

C. W. Ward, W. Bateson, 

J. Wood, J. T. Withers, 
G. Nicholson, W. T. Macoun, 
D.. Morris, W. B. Alwood 
R. Willis, T. V. Munson, 
W. Fawcett, Mrs. T. V. Munson, 
N. E. Hansen, S. Brown, 

AY Js Pieters, G. N. Collins, 

F. M. Hexamer, C. S. Scofield, 
Gy. Nash; W. Saunders, 
W. H. Evans, W. G. Johnson, 
A. Rehder, E. Asmus, 

Cake sSirawe B. Dorrance, 
GeBe somite Miss A. Dorrance, 
(CG, 1B, JNiera, 7 Miss Markham, 
Mrs, C..E. Allen, L. Barron, 


ase Wallis; 


PAPERS PRESENTED AT THE CONFERENCE 


Tuesday, September 30 


SEE PAGE 
PRACTICAL ASPECTS OF THE NEW DISCOVERIES 
SPRUE TIN os the ee evens haere Sarasin s eas 2 wu WAM BGIESOW. <2. I 
Notes on Menpev’s MetHops oF Cross 
eMC RY it ore Oe s ga ane eens 6 Awe C. (G, elursi IL 
RR N@UAT! ATAVESMy 24 sp les cwie a vero ew al Hugo de Vries 17 
PROMI USIONS tro Fos. cursi geen Koa e ee Max Leichtlin 25 
SUGGESTIONS FOR THE CLASSIFICATION OF 
LE INEIID SS 2 eee cere ee Vg ie a) BAY ed (6 tademeee 29 
DEFINITION OF “Sport” (GENERAL DIscus- 
Sp Gao Ye ae Spee ee 32 


SOME OF THE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES OF 


eT EMRE TUNG 4 acnpev ce tensat odie scent ole «2 Luther Burbank . 35 
On THE BREEDING OF DISEASE-RESISTAN?T 

VRIES NDS SI ost Secteur a ee ee Ce HeeA Orbos oo At 
BREEDING FOR INTRINSIC QUALITIES......... W. M. Hays » 55 
CORRELATION BETWEEN DIFFERENT PARTS OF 

THE PLANT IN Form, CoLoR AND OTHER 

PEUACUNC EIR ESIRICG > oie4ecamis ans'h vam coalievel ajevons argues S. A. Beach 63 
Wednesday, October 1 
Evo_uTion UNpER Domestication, D1iscus- 

MORONS MEER BVis cha ticic sd. /o56 visio sie 'e  'scoa Oars GOO tater 59 
fou UAT, PREPOTENCY <0. 24sec ee ee ees Will W. Tracy 75 
IMPROVEMENT OF THE SUGAR CANE BY SELEC- 

Mone AND CROSS FERTILIZATION... 2.0.5.2 0 DDE MEOPTUS 2 eae as 70) 
Some CyToLocicaL ASPECTS OF Hysrips ..... W. A. Cannon 8O 
IMPROVEMENT OF Roses By Bup SELEcTION...L. C. Corbett 93 
IMPROVEMENT OF OaTS BY BREEDING ........ J. B. Norton 103 
Own BREEDING Florists’ FLOWERS ........ PEG se Ulloa eens eter 
PeeDLEY OF PUMPKINS .......---2--6-06- Lot. Batley say) 
RESULTS OF MHysRIDIZATION AND PLANT 

IemmOmG IN “CANADA... 0.0.65 5005600. Wm. Saunders ..125 
UST TESTE Se cr We BY Alwooed. .-142 
Pyeripizine GLADIOLUS SPECIES..........- W. van Fleet 143 
IMPROVEMENT OF CARNATIONS ...........%. C. W. Ward 151 


Thursday, October 2 


3REEDING OF NATIVE NORTHWESTERN FrRuits.N. E. 


ADVANTAGES OF CONJOINT SELECTION ANI 
HYBRIDIZATION AND Limits OF USEFULNESS 
IN HYBRIDIZATION AMONG GRAPES........l. 

STUDY OF THE VARIATIONS IN THE SECOND 


GENERATION oF BERBERIS Hyprips ........ CLE. Saynderss . 
Bub VARIATION IN THE STRAWBERRY PLANT... M. Kellogg 
Eom VAREAEION: IN AUPPLESs .y-. occ eeoe G: T.. Powell se 
HAND POLLINATION OF OrcHARD Fruits ....H. C. Price 
CEREAL, BREEDENG EN ICANSAS\i\ 4050.50 2 Ae OF, cROverES 
Notes ON PLANT BREEDINGIN JAMAICA..... W. Facweett 


Poa, SESSIONS: AND .RESOLUTIONS: «<5 ins rp. s oases oe eee I 


APPENDIX—PAPERS: READ BY ‘TITLE 


NOTES ON THE BREEDING OF PEAS AND BEANS. IV’. 


IMPROVEMENT OF Corn BY BREEDING .......- C..-P. Hartley 

My EXPERIENCE IN HyBrtpiIzInec C: 

bp leetite ANDY SINE S27) F 05's G5, Raia? s he dtacd ace aad ees I cle 

Aire MOUS EVE RON: ts)... £2555 tec crete es ee 

ie lem eye DeBRADS.0. dn S26 Wee arnt oh N 

Practica, Pornts FROM THE BREEDING oF 
STRAWBERRIES AND BusH FRUITS. ........ f 

ERVER IOS AWD ADISBASES ost) o/c seessrss eee ae fe 

SELECTION AVS.) LE WBRIDISA © oaths ods Toad e F 

Nores ON CALIFORNIA PLANT BREEDING..... ES 1 Wacksonwes 

A StTupy OF GRAPE POLLEN, AND WHAT THE 
IRFSUIZES LNDICATE. t.).00 2000 & « Sala erent ao 

Some Hysrip NIcoTiANAS........ Bes Oa P, 


THE EVERBEARING STRAWBERRY ......0.-.--L. 


T. Macoun 


NNAS... 4. Wintzer. 


A. Waugh 
'. B. White 


. A. Pammel? 
7 W. Burbidge. . 


. O. Booth 
de Vilmorin. . 
de Vilmorin. . 


~~ 


INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON PLANT 
BREEDING AND HYBRIDIZATION 


The first session of the conference was called to order at ten o'clock A. 
M. on Tuesday, September 30, 1902, by President James Wood of the Horti- 
cultural Society of New York, who without formality opened the proceedings 
and stated that the Horticultural Society had made arrangements for the pub- 
lication of the proceedings of the conference, the contents of the volume to be 
coprighted as a whole by the Society, but reserving to the authors exclusively 
all rights in the papers which they present. 

The following paper was then read by W. Bateson, of Cambridge Uni- 
versity, England: 


PRACTICAL ASPECTS OF THE NEW DISCOVERIES 
IN HEREDITY 


By W. Bateson, Cambridge University, England. 


Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: It is impossible for me to begin 
the serious discussion of these subjects without expressing the pleasure that I 
feel in having this opportunity of addressing you. It is and must be always 
# great pleasure to a man who is engaged in a very special line of inquiry, as 
breeding experiments are, to meet others who are engaged in such work, whose 
thoughts are centred on the same problems as his own. Especially may I 
welcome this opportunity of speaking here in the United States, where what 
is being done in this line of inquiry is on a scale of comprehensiveness which 
I may truly say far exceeds anything that is being done in any other country 
in the world. We have only to glance at the publications of the agricultural 
experiment stations to know what progress is being made in this line. Here 
ainid vast diversities of soil and climate the great resources of the States are 
being applied to the elucidation of these problems, with the result that the 
seepe of the work carried on entirely surpasses that which is attempted by 
other nations. It is therefore with especial satisfaction that I welcome the 
opportunity of addressing those who in the United States are devoting them- 
selves to the study of experimental breeding. 

In these studies we have reached a critical moment. That crisis, as it is 
known to many of those present, has been brought about by the rediscovery 
and confirmation of Mendel’s work on heredity. These discoveries intimately 
concern the art of the practical breeder, and I propose to use the present 
opportunity to indicate some of the ways in which we can employ them for his 
purposes, 


2 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 


The essential point which Mendel discovered in peas, and others are now 
discovering in various fields of inquiry, is that, thotigh a plant or an animal 
may be made up of a great complex of characters, height, size, color, hairiness, 
form of fruits and organs, etc., yet in a very considerable number of cases, a 
number which increases almost every month, those characters may possess an 
individuality manifested in the formation of the germ cells. When two varie- 
ties differing in, say, color, or form, or hairiness, or whatever it may be, are 
crossed together a “hybrid” is formed. That hybrid when it comes to make 
its own germ cells, male cells, or female cells, makes them in a number 
of cases, indeed in all Mendelian cases, such that each germ cell represents 
one of the pure grandparental characters, and not both. That is the essential 
discovery of Mendel.. The cases that are most familiar are those in peas, the 
subject on which he originally worked. If a pea with green cotyledons ‘be 
crossed with one having yellow cotyledons a hybrid is produced. That hybrid 
grows up and bears peas in its turn. Those peas will be composed, each indi- 
vidual pea, of a union of two germs, each germ being a carrier of either one or 
ihe other of the pure parental characters. Therefore we may have two green 
germs uniting, or two yellow germs uniting, or a yellow germ uniting with a 
green. Each gamete in such a case is pure to one or the other of the two 
parental characters which you first put into the hybrid. In other words, we 
can recognize many different characters in animals or plants which are unit 
characters, and in the formation of gametes are treated as distinct entities 
or units. 

If, instead of using pure parental forms differing from each other in respect 
of one pair of antagonistic—allelomorphic characters, as we call them—we use 
parental forms distinguished in respect of two, three or more pairs of allelo- 
morphs, then each germ cell in Mendelian cases will contain or transmit one 
character only of each pair. 

To use an illustration: In chemistry you may have a body, say, a simple 
salt, from which you can take out the base, or the acid radical, replacing the 
base by another base, or the acid radical by another acid radical. You can in 
that way decompose your substance into component parts, reforming them in 
various combinations. So we must imagine a plant which has one element of 
color, for example, another element of texture, etc., and we must conceive 
that when two varieties are crossed together the unit characters can be com- 
bined and recombined in the gametes of the hybrid, alternating with and 
replacing each other by substitution. You can take out greenness and put in 
yellowness; you can take out hairiness and put in smoothness; you can take 
out tallness and put in dwarfness, etc. The characters have their fixed possi- 
bilities of union, and hence it may be possible for us to form some mental 
picture of the constitution of the organism. 

Now when we come to the question of the significance of these things to 
the breeder or to the hybridist, it will be found thatthe significance is exceed- 
ingly great. I am afraid of saying that we have already reached a point when 
the practical man who is doing these things with a definite, economic object or 
commercial object in view can take the facts and use them for his definite 
advantage. But we do for the first time get a clear sight of some of the 
fundamentals on which he will in future work, and it cannot be now very 


PRACTICAL; ASPECTS IN HEREDITY. 3 


many years, if the investigations go on at the present rate, before the breeder 
will be in a position not so very different from that in which the chemist is :— 
when he will be able to do what he wants to do, instead of merely what 
happens to turn up. Hitherto I think it is not too much to say that the 
results of hybridization had given a hopeless entanglement of contradictory 
results. We did not know what to expect. We crossed two things; we 
saw the incomprehensible diversity that comes in the second generation; we 
did not know how to reason about it, how to appreciate it, or what it meant. 
We got contradictory results, and the thing looked hopeless. But with the . 
discovery of the purity of the germ cells we have the first step, which, I think, 
is bound in a very short time to become a path through many of those won- 
derful mazes of heredity. 

To the practical man, I take it, the importance of this discovery comes 
in, first, somewhat as follows: Seeing that the gametes are pure with respect 
to their characters, it follows that an individual which is produced as the 
offspring of a cross will be composed, in respect to any one pair of these 
characters, either of two similar gametes or of two dissimilar gametes. Take 
the case of the pea. Any one pea descended from an original cross between 
yellow and green will either be composed of two similar green gametes, or of 
two similar yellow gametes, or of a yellow and a green. Now, as it happens 
in the case of the pea, and in a great number of other cases, unfortunately for 
the breeder, there is no means of distinguishing outwardly by any test that we 
can apply whether the organism is a hybrid or pure to the dominant character. 
There is no way of distinguishing in the cases where yellow meets green 
whether the organism is a hybrid that is composed of yellow and green, or 
whether it is pure to the yellow character and is composed of two yellow 
gametes. There is no possibility of distinguishing, because the yellow is, as 
Mendel calls it, dominant, and the green is hidden, or, as he calls it, recessive. 
We have, therefore, in such a case as that, two classes of organisms, pure and 
hybrid, each showing the dominant character, and it is owing to the fact that 
the pure dominant cannot be distinguished from the dominant hybrid con- 
taining both dominant and recessive characters that an immense number of 
the contradictions which the practical breeder experiences have come about. 
For example, a breeder or seedsman introduces some strain of a new variety 
of his seed—peas, or whatever it may be. He finds a number of rogues which 
are not true to the character which he desires to put on the market—rogues 
which he is unable to eliminate. Formerly we said it was only a question of 
time; he must hoe out the rogues and go on, and he will gradually fix his 
type... But now we begin to see what the facts really mean. He hoes out the 
rogues, and again they come—in diminishing number, no doubt, but they 
are still there. We now suspect the nature of such rogues in a considerable 
number of examples. For example, the bearded wheats occurring among 
wheats which are intended to be beardless. Every year they grow, and every 
year the seedsman hoes them out, and again they come back. Those bearded 
wheats may come from the fact that. the beardless wheats had a bearded 
ancestor, and some of them contain bearded germs. If you cross a bearded 
wheat with a beardless wheat, the first cross will be a beardless wheat. You 
allow it to fertilize itself, and you sow your crop; you begin to get beards and 


4 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 


beardless. You take out the bearded, and again there will be a beardless crop 
with a certain number of bearded. To get your crop pure in a few generations 
you should make your selection from individual plants. Then you will begin 
to find that some plants carry only the bearded character and some will carry 
both. It is the coming out of these recessive characters, owing to the for- 
tuitous union of recessive gents, which shows itself in the offspring you 
desire to get rid of. 

Whenever, then, it is desired, in a crossbred strain, to fix a dominant 
character selections must always be made of single families containing no 
recessive members. 

We reach, therefore, a fact of immediate interest to the practical breeder. 
We have lost forever, I think, the conception that fixity of character is solely 
or chiefly a function of the number of generations during which that char- 
acter has been manitested, or of the number of successive selections of that 
particular variety which have been made. Purity of strain or fixity of char- 
acter is, on the contrary, due primarily to the union of similar gametes im 
fertilization. Such purity may therefore occur among the immediate offspring 
of crossbred organisms. 

Another question of considerable practical significance is that of the nature 
and causation of dominance, involving the further question whether the breeder 
lias any means at his disposal by which dominance may be created, modified 
or controlled. Upon this point experimental results are still to seek, and 
though there are a few cases* where we know that the dominance of one 
character over another varies in intensity, we have no clear indication as to the 
causes governing these differences of intensity. We may naturally be disposed 
to consider whether continued pure-breeding, or, perhaps, in-breeding, may 
not be concerned in the creation of dominance, but the facts at present ascer- 
tained give no clear light on this question. We have, however, abundant 
evidence that pure breeding is not essential to the constitution of dominance ; 
for in any simple Mendelian case the pure dominants, offspring of one cross- 
bred and one dominant parent, or of two crossbred parents, may, and com- 
monly do, show unimpaired dominance over recessives of pure lineage. 

But there is another class of facts which, to my thinking, is far more 
interesting than that, and is of more significance to the practical breeder, and 
that is this: I spoke in the case of the green and the yellow pea of the 
offspring resembling the dominant, the yellow. But in a great number of 
cases we find a phenomenon not nearly so simple as that. When similar 
germs meet they produce a pure bred organism, which in my terminology is 
called a homozygote, a yoking together of like germs. When the germs are 
dissimilar they make a new form, a hybrid form, which in this terminology 
we may call a /icterozygote, the yoking together of two dissimilar germs in 
the zygote form. Until we have seen the heterozygote, its form is not predica- 
ble in any specific case. You cannot say until you have made the specific cross 
what the character of that heterozygote will be. It may be that, through dom- 
inance, one character only prevails to the exclusion of the other, or the hetero- 
zygote may have some form totally distinct from that of either of the parents. 


*The extra toe of the Dorking fowl, for instance, is uniformly dominant in some 
strains, but not in others, 


PRACTICAL ASPECTS IN HEREDITY. 5 


For example, in a case that I see a great deal of, in the sweet pea, you may 
by crossing two sweet peas produce the old purple sweet pea with chocolate 
colored standards dnd purple wings. That purple sweet pea so produced will 
not breed true. The old purple pea of the gardeners was a pure pea and 
would perpetuate itself truly from seed; but the purple pea produced as a 
heterozygote form will not breed pure, but will split up into the components 
which produced it. So that we recognize that there is a new form, a hetero- 
zygote form, which, though it may resemble some pure form, will not breed 
true. This is a case that may not interest the seedsman, because he does not 
want the old sweet pea. Nevertheless, in his fertilizations he may produce 
another new form which he does want, and after all his laborious selection 
he may find it is only a heterozygote which will never breed true. 

It is a curious and unexplained fact—constituting one of the most fertile 
fields of inquiry—that when dissimilar gametes meet they should so often 
produce an ancient form. That is what we now recognize as the rationale of 
Darwin’s “reversions on crossing.” When Darwin crossed his pigeons he 
brought back an old form; and so in crossing many plants you can get back a 
reversionary form by uniting two dissimilar gametes. 

In my own experience a most extraordinary case of this nature has 
occurred. When the Mendelian discoveries were first announced it was ob- 
viously desirable to cross two varieties differing in some visible character of 
the gametes (whether alike in other respects or not). By such means we might 
hope to make visible that mixture of dissimilar gametes which must certainly 
secur in Mendelian hybrids. Unfortunately the actual gametes of flowering 
plants are not adapted to this experiment, but the nearest things to them are 
the pollen grains. So I cast about for a case of visible variation in pollen. 
By good fortune I found them at once in a certain sweet pea. 

Ordinary sweet peas have their pollen grains elongated, with three pores. 
The white variety known as Emily Henderson, an American sort about eight 
to ten years old, usually has pollen grains which, when treated with acids, etc., 
are seen to be roughly spherical, with only two pores. Various grains of inter- 
mediate types are found from time to time in the pollen of E. Henderson, 
and the round grains not very rarely have three pores. But the pollen of a 
round-pollened plant can generally be distinguished immediately from that of a 
long-pollened plant. 

Proposing, then, to cross E. Henderson with sweet peas having typical 
pollen, I sowed a quantity of that variety. But when the plants flowered I 
discovered that, though a majority of the Hendersons had round pollen, a 
few, though otherwise indistinguishable from the others, had nevertheless 
long pollen, exactly like a common sweet pea. I then crossed the round 
pollened Henderson with the long, and vice versa. The same experiment was 
also made independently by Miss E. R. Saunders. Every seed then produced 
(from four capsules) has given a plant with chocolate-purple standards and 
blue-purple wings! There are many details respecting this remarkable case 
which I hope ere long to publish, but I mention it now as illustrating in a 
striking way how paradoxical are the phenomena empirically produced by the 
experimental breeder, and how puzzling are these heterozygous forms. 

_ I may say that my experiment entirely failed to fulfil its original purpose, 


6 HORTICULTURAL. SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 


which was to see a mixture of true long grains and true round grains, for all 
the pollen of these plants was typically long, showing a of the long 
pollen as a plant character. 

I know no example of the production of an atavistic heterozygote so 
curious as this. It should be stated that white color of flowers is, in general, a 
pure recessive character in sweet peas. Hence, had I happened to cross a 
long and a round pollened Henderson together without knowing of this pollen 
lifference, I should not have been aware of the heterozygous nature of the 
purple mongrel, and should have been still more hopelessly unable to bring the 
iacts into line. Even as it stands, we may feel fairly sure that something more 
than simple Mendelian phenomena are presented by this case, but pending the 
next generation we cannot analyze it any further. 

The occurrence of these heterozygous forms concerns the practical breeder 
very closely. The breeder may breed a new variety of value, and he may be 
most anxious to obtain its seed pure. Year by year he selects it, but every year, 
if it be a heterozygote, it fails to come true; because, as we now see, its germ 
cells do not transmit or represent the heterozygous character, but merely the 
pure characters of its components. 

In the garden of my friend, Mr. Sutton, of Reading, I have seen a case 
of this kind. It is a beautiful Chinese Primrose (Primula sinensis) of a 
curious lavender color. The seeds of the self-fertilized lavenders are sown 
each year, but of the total offspring only about half are lavenders, one-quarter 
being a tinged white and one-quarter magentas. We can scarcely doubt that 
the lavenders are formed as the heterozygote of that particular white and ma- 
genta, the whites being homozygotes formed by the union of two white 
gametes, while the magentas are similarly formed by the union of two magenta 
gametes. In such a case statistical study of the offspring will show the 
breeder with approximate certainty what he is dealing with, and will give nim 
a good indication whether it is worth while for him to continue in his attempt 
to get the variety true. 

A case almost certainly of the same nature occurs in poultry—the case of 
the Andalusian fowl. The Andalusian was at one time a favorite breed. Its 
plumage is of a peculiar blue-gray, mixed with black. You may go to the 
poultry shows and buy the winning Andalusians, thinking that they will breed 
true. But they will not. Andalusians have been bred for at least forty or fifty 
years, and there is no good reason for thinking that they breed any truer now 
than formerly. Every one is agreed that the breed possesses this drawback. 
The “impurity” manifests itself in the production of numerous black birds and © 
numerous white birds irregularly splashed with blackish gray. From such 
evidence as I can obtain it seems almost certain that these two objectionable 
forms are produced in about equal numbers, and that the number of true 
Andalusians is about double the number of either. The Andalusian is almost 
anquestionably a heterozygous form made by the union of the black gamete 
with the white-splashed gamete. It is, moreover, on record that the two sport- 
forms crossed together produce only Andalusians, as they should do if the 
case is a simple Mendelian one. We may, therefore, predict that the Anda- 
lusian, like the lavender Primula, will never breed true, however well or long 
it be selected. 


PRACTICAL ASPECTS IN HEREDITY. 7 


In these brief remarks I have indicated some of the lines along which the 
Mendelian discoveries will have a close bearing on the work of the practical 
breeder. We have for the first time a conception of the true nature of at least 
a part of the facts which underlie the outward and visible phenomena witnessed 
by the breeder. As I have attempted to show, we have at last a clear notion 
of the meaning of purity or fixity of type, of the consequences of dominance 
and of the nature of heterozygous forms—phenomena which go to make up the 
daily experience of those who are practically engaged in these pursuits. It is 
impossible on the present occasion to go into many other fascinating problems 
suggested by these simple facts. For example, we do not proceed far with 
the practice of experimental breeding before we meet the phenomenon of the 
decomposition or resolution of compound characters into simpler constituent 
characters (hypallelomorphs), themselves possessing a measure of individual- 
ity. Then again we are presented with a whole series of possibilities of the 
utmost consequence both to the naturalist and the practical breeder. 


It is difficult to see this phenomenon of the decomposition or resolution of 
compound characters without feeling the conviction that we have here the key 
to a great part of the mystery of parallel variations. We are led to suspect 
that the series of colors, for instance, into which the original color of the Car- 
nation has been split up may be a similar series to that into which, say, the 
sweetpea has been split up. We can in this way imagine that each series of 
component colors consists of a number of definite terms related to each other 
in a definite way such that, if we could ascertain the relation of yellow in 
the one series, we could predict somewhat simiiar relations for yellow in the 
other series. The colors of flowers give us many such series, and even classes 
of series, of which some have obviously distinct laws of their own. Neverthe- 
less, it is in a high degree likely that if one such series of colors were studied 
statistically in such a way that what I have called the mutual relations of its 
terms could be stated, we should have a model which would enable us to recon- 
struct other similar series, to predict its terms, and possibly to set about pro- 
ducing them at will. 


In this paper I have spoken only of the simpler deductions from Mendel’s 
principles. To this audience I need scarcely say that we are well aware that 
taose principles in their simple form cover only a part of the phenomena of 
heredity. In trying to extend them or to cast them into a general form many 
reservations must be made that cannot now be detailed, and a vast field must 
be covered by specific experiment before such generalizations can be successful. 
Chief, perhaps, of the difficulties we can at present foresee is that caused by the 
existence of numbers of specific heterozygotes, which may appear quite unex- 
pectedly owing to the presence of unknown differentiations between parent- 
strains presumed to be identical. Such a case is that of the E. Henderson 
mentioned above. Phenomena of this kind will doubtless be found elsewhere, 
and will lead to great difficulties of interpretation. Against such cases the 
observer must be on his guard. The significance of such forms can only be 
studied by an analysis of their offspring. 


In addition to the general development of the inquiry we may note three 
chief subjects that call for immediate investigation: 


8 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 


1. The resolution of compound characters and a statistical study of their 
components. 


2. The nature of dominance and its possible limitations. 


3. The detection of differentiation among the gametes of cross-bred or- 
ganisms. 


As to the last two we are still in ignorance how to proceed, but the first 
is a question we can at once attack by Mendelian methods. 

But apart from the profounder mysteries, the unravelling of the problems 
of heredity has now become a matter for simple statistical research. Owing to 
the scale on which they must be pursued, it is likely that for their further 
elucidation we must perhaps look rather to the practical breeder whose opera- 
tions are of large extent than to the scientific investigator whose resources 
are generally of a more limited character. But if in the future some co- 
operation between these two groups of workers can be secured, we may con- 
fidently look forward to the time when the laws of heredity, hitherto a hopeless 
mystery, will, in their outward presentments, at least, be, as the laws of 
chemistry now are, a matter of every day knowledge. The period of confusion 
is passing away, and we have at length a basis from which to attack that 
mystery such as we could scarcely have hoped two years ago would be dis- 
covered in our time. 


[For a fuller account, in English, of Mendelian facts and problems, the 
reader is referred to the Report to the Evolution Committee of the Royal 
Society No. 1, by W. Bateson and E. R. Saunders; also to Mendel’s Principles 
of Heredity, by W. Bateson, containing a translation of Mendel’s papers, to- 
gether with a discussion; published by the Cambridge University Press (in 
America, the Macmillan Company). These papers give references to the chief 
writings on the subject, especially those of De Vries, Correns, and Tschermak, 
who almost simultaneously announced the rediscovery and confirmation of 
Mendel’s work. In the latter publication, on p. 71, 4ta line from bottom, 
Abab should be Ab, ab; and aBab should be aB, ab. The following corrections 
should be made in the Report referred to above: p. 24. The offspring of 
S. inermis x S. armata should stand in the column headed “S. ar.” p. 105, 2nd 
line. For “agree precisely, being 3.0:1” read “are 2.7:1.” p. 160. Note. For 
“talls” read “Cupids.’”’ | 


The Chair: We feel very greatly indebted to Mr. Bateson for his admirable 
presentation of these principles underlying fertilization. I am sure he has brought to 
each one of us here who has had any practical experience in this work the explanation 
of some difficulties that we have run against, whatever our work may have been. And 1 
want to commend Mr. Bateson for the admirable presentation of a subject so full of 
information for us. 


L. H. Bailey: Mr. President, I should like to say one word in regard to this mat- 
ter of the Mendelian hypothesis. I have tried to follow it myself in this last year or two. 
I wish to say to you that if you wish to follow this with the greatest degree of accuracy 
you should get Mr. Bateson’s recent book, “Mendel’s Principles of Heredity.” I 
don’t believe that we shall get ready for a long time to formulate laws by means of which 
we may predict what is coming, because our premises are as yet in a way unknown. But 
it seems to me that the resuscitation and revival of Mendel’s theories are going to open 
a whole new field to speculation in regard to the principles of heredity. It seems to me 
that the next few years are going to see a discussion of the principles of heredity in re- 
gard to plants that is comparable to that which followed Darwin’s discovery. It seems 


PRACTICAL ASPECTS IN HEREDITY. 9 


to me it is as important as that. I expect to use this book as a basis for all our work 
in plant breeding. 

William Saunders: Mr. President, this paper has thrown light upon many subjects 
which have been somewhat dark in my mind. For instance, in the cross-fertilizing of 
wheats we have often found that the crossing of two beardless forms will produce a 
bearded form, or we have a beardless wheat as the result of the crossing of two bearded 
forms. This explanation that Professor Bateson has given us throws light on that point 
and on many similar points which have puzzled many of us who are practical workers 
in this very interesting field. 

H. H. Groff: The principles referred to by Mr. Bateson are certainly of great 
interest as regards primary crosses, and those crosses are related to our comparatively 
early experience in work of this kind. But the great question of interest to us in the 
future (and even now to those workers of extended experience) will be in regard to those 
crosses which are multiple to a limitless degree. These will present the questions in 
the future. It is not so much what we expect to find between hybrids or crosses con- 
taining a limited number of characteristics, but when crosses contain many thousands the 
problem will be far greater. 

W. J. Spillman: I have with me some specimens, or rather some figures, of the 
specimens of wheat illustrating this law. I place them on exhibition. 

The Chair: I could have presented from my own fields this season ten acres of il- 
lustration of Mr. Bateson’s statement in regard to growing wheat. I have been 
growing a hybrid wheat for a number of years in a practical way as a farmer, and the 
seedsmen have taken the crops, and every year I have had to fight these bearded speci- 
mens of plants that came up in this field. To me it has been one of my greatest puzzles, 
as I was making no progress whatever; and while I never allowed one of those plants to 
go into my field, yet year after year I had the same result. I can see that it has been a 
bottomless work that I have been trying. 


The following paper by C. C. Hurst, of England, was read by the Secretary: 


NOTES ON MENDEL’S METHODS OF CROSS-BREEDING 


By Charles C. Hurst, Burbage, Hinckley, Eng. 


The first hybrid plant, raised by hand, appears to have been recorded by 
Richard Bradley, in 1717, as a cross between the Carnation (Dianthus caryo- 
phyllus. 2) and the Sweet William (D. barbatus. 3) ; it was raised by Thomas 
Fairchild, of the Hoxton Nurseries, near London. (Ref. 1.) 

Since then many hybrids and crosses, in many genera, have been raised by 
many persons, in many countries. Among others, the names of Kobreuter, 
Knight, Herbert, Gartner, Godron, Nandin and Darwin stand pre-eminent. 
The culminating point of all these being the experiments, reasearches and broad 
‘generalizations of Charles Darwin, which mark off a distinct epoch. The new 
epoch seems to have begun actually in Darwin’s time, though apparently quite 
unknown to himself and to his contemporaries. 

- In 1866 (about two years before Darwin published his monumental work 
on the “Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication’) Gregor 
Mendel published, at Briinn, the records of his remarkable experiments in 
cross-breeding distinct races of the Garden Pea (Pisum sativum). (Ref. 2.) 

Curiously enough, this work remained in obscurity until 1900, when it was 
brought to light, almost simultaneously, by the experiments and researches of 
De Vries in Holland, Correns in Germany, Tschermak in Austria, and Bateson 
in England. So that, although 1866 marked the beginning of the new epoch, 
yet it was not until the last year of the nineteenth century that any marked 
advance was made. The psychological moment had apparently arrived, and 
during the past two years the progress in certain directions has been phe- 
nomenal. Experiments with various kinds of plants and animals, carried out 
on Mendelian lines, have yielded large numbers of facts, which, on the whole, 
practically confirm the results obtained by Mendel, though, at the same time, 
it is only fair to state that apparent exceptions are fairly numerous. 

In face of these exceptions, and notwithstanding the many confirmations of 
Mendel’s results by different observers in different kinds of plants and animals, 
it is quite possible that it is too early yet to regard Mendel’s principles as 
capable of general application. At the same time, there is no doubt that 
Mendel’s experiments and those of his disciples are a great advance on what 
has been done before, and will probably prove a stepping-stone towards the 
final solution of the problems of inheritance. For the present it may be wise 


’ 


(1) “New Improvements of Planting and Gardening,” 1717; cap. il., p. 22. 

(2) “Versuche uber Pflanzen—hybriden,” abhandl. d. Naturf. Vereins. in Brunn, 1866, 
iv., pp. 1—47. (See also English translation of above by the Royal Horticultural Society 
of London, in Journ. Roy. Hort. Soc., 1901, xxvi., pp. I—32.) 


12 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 


to suspend our judgment and wait for further facts. But while we wait, let 
us also work, and help to secure those further facts, of which we are so much 
in need, altogether regardless of whether they happen to confirm or not the 
principles laid down by Mendel. 

In order to accomplish this it will be necessary to work strictly on Men- 
delian lines, and to study Mendel’s methods with great care. 

Mendel, after surveying the work of his predecessors, started with a clear 
conception of what he wanted to investigate, and arranged his experiments 
accordingly. 

In his own language, he wished: 


(1) To determine the number of different forms under which the off- 
spring of hybrids appear. 

(2) To arrange these forms with certainty according to their separate 
generations. 

(3) To definitely ascertain their numerical or statistical relations. 


The careful judgment, skill and forethought which Mendel displayed in 
organizing and carrying out his experiments with Pisum were evidently the 
products of a master mind, and for some time to come his classical experiments 
will serve as a model for the hybridist who wishes to attack the perplexing 
problems of inheritance. 

The general object of this paper is to give a brief outline of Mendel’s 
methods, and to endeavor to show how superior they are in all respects to the 
methods of his predecessors. The particular object of this paper is to express 
the hope that the hybridists and breeders of the New World, with their 
progressive ideas, their many opportunities, their vast system of experiment 
stations, and their practical knowledge of breeding, will take up and test the 
matter on a much larger scale than we can hope to do in the Old World, and 
thus help to bring the question to a speedy and definite issue. 

So convinced is the writer of the superiority of Mendel’s methods that he 
has already in hand a large number of experiments on Mendelian lines, in 
Pisum, Lathyrus, Papaver, Primula, and Paphiopedilum (Cypripedium), and 
also in various breeds of Fancy Poultry, the results of which he hopes to 
publish in due course. 


MENDEL’S METHODS. 


(1) Single Characters. 

One of the most fruitful sources of confusion, in the older records of ex- 
periments in cross-breeding, has been the selection of the individual plant as 
the unit upon which to base the results. 

The individual plant is made up of a large number of characters—organs, 
structures, whatever one may term them—distinctly marked off from: 
one another, the points of difference both in form and in color being sometimes 
great and at other times small. In working out the inheritance of specific char- 
acter in hybrid orchids in 1899, the writer became much impressed with the 
possibilities of variation in individuals, when a number of characters in each 
were considered together as one unit. (Ref. 3.) 


(3) Report of the International Conference on Hybridization, London, 1899, in Journ. 
l'oy. Hort. Soc., 1900, xxiv., pp. 106—117 


4 
NOTES ON MENDEL’S METHODS. 138 


Some characters showed dominance of one parent, some of the other 
parent, while others were intermediate. 

When these several variations occurred in twenty different characters, the 
possibilities of variations among the individual hybrids became very consid- 
erable, so much so that the results became quite unmanageable. Since that 
time the writer has been compelled to consider each single character on its own 
merits. It is true that, in some cases, the correlation of characters tends to 
modify this result to some extent, but in the case of the orchid hybrids in 
question the correlation was not very evident. From this experience it follows 
that in any statistics of inheritance a definite result can only be determined by 
taking each single character separately as a distinct unit, completely ignoring, 
for the time being, the individual plant made up of many characters. 

Mendel apparently was the first to see this clearly. and acted upon it in his 
experiments with Pisum, with remarkable results. 

(2) Constant Characters. 

Next comes the important question of ancestry. From the earliest times 
it has been observed that in many instances offspring have resembled their 
grandparents or their more remote ancestors, rather than their actual parents. 
So that in experimental crossing, if two parents be chosen, each of whose 
ancestry is unknown or perhaps consists of complicated factors, the resulting 
offspring are either incomparable and incomprehensible, or they vary among 
themselves in bewildering confusion. The result, in any case, is chaos, and 
goes a long way to account for the many contradictory records which we find 
in the experiments carried out in the old style. Mendel, in his experiments, 
carefully and skilfully avoids this confusion by crossing together only constant 
and fixed races, i. e., each parent has been the product of repeated self-fertili- 
zation, so that its ancestry has been practically the same for many generations. 

This effectually eliminates all the possible complications which might be 
caused by the influence of the immediate ancestors at any rate, though how far 
it affects the possible reversion to more remote ancestors is difficult to say. 
The writer, in his experiments with orchids, has chosen distinct species only as 
parents, and in this way, perhaps, reduces the possibilities of reversion still 
more. De Vries, Correns, Tschermak and Bateson have all for the most part 
followed or carried out Mendel’s method by crossing constant races, and it is 
quite possible that some of their apparent exceptions to Mendel’s results may 
have been due to their crossing particular races which were not really so fixed 
and constant as they believed them to be. 

As we have seen, Mendel carefully avoided this by selecting in the first 
instance fixed parents of pure descent; these he further tested for two years, 
and satisfied himself as to their perfect constancy and fixity, and side by 
side with his crossing experiments he was careful to carry out “control” ex- 
periments with these original parents by still further testing their constancy 
and fixity through all the generations. 

It is just possible that these precautions of Mendel may explain the 
general uniformity of his results as compared with those of his disciples and 
some of his critics. (Ref. 4.) 

(4) cf. Weldon in Biometrika, 1902, i., pp. 228—254. (For complete history, exposition 


and Bibliography of the Mendelian question, see Bateson’s admirable hand-book on 
“Mendel’s Principles of Heredity, ’ Cambridge University Press, 1902.) 


14 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 


(3) Differential Characters. 


The third point worthy of note in the methods of Mendel is that the 
characters selected for crossing must not only be single and constant, but also 
differential in the two parents. If the single characters be nearly alike in the 
two parents it will be impossible to determine which parent the offspring re- 
sembles in that character, because all three would necessarily be nearly alike, 
i. e., the offspring and its two parents. On the other hand, the wider the 
difference between the pair of parental characters, the more clearly defined will 
be the single character in the resulting offspring, and consequently the easier 
it will be to refer the resemblance in the offspring to either parent. 

Mendel, in his experiments, takes single constant characters in the parents 
which are distinctly differential and which can be clearly defined in the 
offspring. 

(4) Dominant Characters. 

The fourth point in Mendel’s methods is distinctly new, and that is the 
crossing together only of Dominant and Recessive characters, i. e., one of the 
characters of the differential paris is always distinctly dominant over the other 
one, which latter is known as the Recessive character. 

This serves a useful purpose in giving uniformity in the first generation, 
-and thus avoids the great difficulty of working on to the next generation with 
‘results which are not uniform. 

For instance, if the pair of characters were of fairly equal potency, they 
would, on the whole, be intermediate—either blended or mosaic, tending to one 
parent and the other alternately. It is obvious, therefore, that in a case like 
this, if one wished to carry on the experiment to further generations, the lack 
of uniformity in the first generation would complicate the experiment so much 
as to make it almost unworkable. 

Mendel avoids this by the selection of Dominant and Recessive characters 
only, consequently his results can easily be recorded and tabulated statistically 
in all the generations. 

(5) Large Numbers. 

The fifth point of note in Mendel’s methods is his use of large numbers, 
and in this respect he was without doubt far in advance of his predecessors 
and contemporaries. In the older experiments, for the most part, only a few 
individuals of each cross were raised, and hence the range of variations appar- 
ent was either extreme or scarcely perceptible, according to chance and cir- 
cumstances. 

This no doubt accounts in some measure for the many contradictory results 
obtained by different experimenters at different times. Mendel avoided these 
difficulties by raising large numbers of individuals in each generation, and in 
that way practically gauged the total range of variation in each case.e 


(6) Many Generations. 

Now we come to the sixth and last method of Mendel to be noted here, 
and that is that he was not content to stop at the first generation or even 
the second, as so many of his predecessors were, but he in all cases carried on 
the experiments to the third and fourth generations and in some cases to the 
fifth and sixth generations. Mendel saw clearly that this was absolutely neces- 
sary, though at the same time the work must have been very laborious, and it 


NOTES ON MENDEL’S METHODS. 15 


illustrates once more the thorough and painstaking methods by which Mendel 
overcame all obstacles in his pursuit of truth. 

To sum up the methods of Mendel: Those hybridists who desire to follow 
in the footsteps of Mendel and his disciples and help to elucidate the baffling 
problems of inheritance will find it essential to select parents for the original 
cross which possess characters which are at once Single and Constant and 
Differential and Dominant, and they must also take care to raise large numbers 
of individuals in many generations for observation and comparison. By these 
methods alone will definite results be obtained. 

In conclusion, as a practical illustration of Mendel’s methods, a list is given 
of his own selection of characters in the fixed races of Garden Peas that he 
used for his experiments. 

Pisum Sativum. 
(Fixed Races of Garden Peas.) 


2 alae sath tet | ee x Sea 
SIRT ON PIE SEEUS 60/06 inisis 5 06,00 0.6.5 008 eisiete no o's --»» Round X Wrinkled. 
Peale Of COM LEdONS , oo). .b.s os eld iste swe cee denss es Yellow X Green, 
(3) Color of eecueeat Cuepelated slats x ite. 
PA mUGing GivPIOWEES. ce So po Oe Stee urple X White. 
viet LENO SUaTEPSy PC LOTS 870) < CRA Inflated X Wrinkled. 
PRIMO OLA TNOL LINTIME EOS: i. nie tee viene heesmaenas’ Green X Yellow. 
MDE enIRIOM) OF PIOWELS «co cnc.ciea wie oielne selon senecies pase es Axial X Terminal. 
amCeeEHUOL SUE sc. gieen hs see ce be tals s cae va oe Me e's 6—7it. X 4—14 tt 


H. F, Roberts: I am engaged in wheat breeding, and I should like to inquire 
whether (considering the fact that wheat hybridizes) one can assume in making the first 
hybrid that we have a succession of pure bred parents; or whether it will be necessary 
to make such a succession of pure bred parents, bringing them into existence by hand 
fertilization, in order to be certain that we have a pure bred parent. Is it safe to assume 
that one already has such pure bred parents? 

The Chair: Will Professor Bateson kindly answer the question of Professor Roberts? 
It is this: Whether, in making wheat hybridization, we are to assume that we have a 
parentage on either side that is pure, or must we produce this ourselves by hand fer- 
tilization for a number of generations before we can confidently proceed with our antici- 
pated results? 

W. Bateson: It is difficult to speak on a subject of which I have no practical 
knowledge. My knowledge of wheat breeding is derived from reading the work of others, 
and also from some experiments that I have seen which have been conducted by Mr. 
Biffen, of Cambridge. Mr. Biffen holds, I believe, that the wheat is likely to hybridize, 
and I should imagine it is rash to infer that what one finds to be true of one variety 
would be true of another. I imagine that one would have, in any case of this kind, to 
begin by selection from any selection of plants, and then satisfy one’s self that they were 
breeding pure and producing one form. 

L. H. Bailey: Professor Spillman, who has had practical experience in that line, 
is here, and I should like to hear from him on this subject. 

W. J. Spillman: I can only say a few words on the subject. The difficulty to which 
our president called attention a moment ago exists in the case of seed wheat. You may 
have a beardless variety of wheat, and there will be a small amount of bearded with it, 
which will appear in that Variety every year. That is because you have that typical 
heterozygote; you have a small amount of it in your seed wheat, and if it is necessary 
to be sure it is necessary for you to grow your wheat an@ select the type for three 
generations. You may then be practically certain that yow have a pure type. 

H. F. Roberts: Not scientifically certain? 

W. J. Spillman: Well, as near as you can ever be. In fact, you can, if you use 
proper methods. We can eliminate the old method of fixing a type by selection, In 
fact, that does not fix a type, as has been brought out here. But you can fix your type 


16 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 


in the third generation of any hybrid that obeys Mendel’s law. If by growing your 
wheat, your mother plants, for three generations, you find they do come true to type, 
then they are true to type. 

H. F. Roberts: How about mutation forms? 

W. J. Spillman: I can’t see that mutation forms have any particular bearing on this 
subject, as concerns any variety which we are considering a fixed variety as far as its 
being a hybrid is concerned. Maybe they are mutation forms, and I imagine that when 
we have come to examine a larger number of plants with reference to the mutations 
which are called to our attention, we will find them probably more common than we 
have anticipated. Yet I cannot avoid throwing out this word of caution: I may be 
wrong myself in it. This matter of hybridization is separate from mutation. We may 
have mutations in our homozygotes and we may have mutations in a hybrid plant, so 
that we must not confuse them. When we are dealing with hybrids let us overlook the 
mutations that occur. Now, there is a general belief that hybridization stimulates varia- 
tion. That is a point which seriously needs investigation. I can see no reason why it 
should do so. For instance, Perrin, in Australia, speaks of the second generation of 
wheat as the variable generation. I object to the word variable in that generation, 
because it is not variability; it is simply splitting up in obedience to a definite, well 
known law, and a splitting up in a way that can be predicted. 

There has been an enormous amount of work done on hybridization in the past, 
and Sachs, in the edition of his book published, I think, in 1879, went so far as to state 
that the whole question was definitely settled, and that all that could be learned had 
been learned then. The enormous amount of effort that has been put upon hybridization 
before has been an effort to discover what that heterozygote would be, what characters 
would be dominant, and they have been trying to determine laws by which they can 
predict what will be a dominant and what will be a recessive character in hybrids. 1 
think I am not misrepresenting the facts in the case. Now we have learned that there is 
apparently no settling that; so that question we let alone, We wait until we get our 
hybrid; after we have it we can tell just what we will get ultimately, and the test of the 
law is our ability to prophesy by it. Now I want to repeat a statement which I have 
made twice before in public, that in the case of those characters which do obey Mendel’s 
law—and the number is increasing rapidly, as Professor Bateson has said—we can abso- 
lutely state in advance, before we make a hybrid, what the result will be. That seems 
like a very astounding statement, but I agree with a statement of Professor Bateson 
already published, and which I have along with me, in which he says that he regards 
Mendel’s discovery as of equal importance with the formation of the atomic theory in 
chemistry. 

William Saunders: In regard to the length of time which it will take to fix a 
particular species, I will cite an example which we had at the experimental farm in 
Ottawa. We imported a wheat from near Spitzbergen, near the Lena River, which was 
said to be a fixed type and had been in cultivation there from time immemorial. ‘Lhis 
wheat we grew for two or three years, examining it very carefully without observing 
any sports of any kind in it. Of course, there might have been sports, and we might 
have overlooked them; but it was examined carefully for two or three years. Subse- 
quently to that, bearded sports made their appearance in this wheat. The wheat was so 
small in the kernel that there was no probability of our having confused that with any 
other variety of wheat. We bred from those sports bearded forms of that wheat, although - 
the beardless was the form in which we received it. It was an exceedingly early wheat, 
too, so that the probabilities of any confusion arising from any intermixture were less 
than if they had all bred at the same time. 

W. J. Spillman: In that case it is possible that the bearded heads were pure 
sports, irrespective of any hybridization that the wheat had experienced in the past. 
That is possible, and is something that we cannot avoid in any way. We may select a 
type for an indefinite number of years, and then occasionally get a sport from it, due to 
something that we do not understand. 

William Saunders: The selection of types for purposes of hybridization was under 
discussion, and this case shows the possibility of such types varying even after three 


years. = 


A paper on “Artificial Atavism,” by Hugo de Vries, Director of the Botanical 
Gardens, Amsterdam, was read by D. T. MacDougal, of the New York Botanical 
Gardens. 


ON ARTIFICIAL ATAVISM 
By Hugo de Vries. 


Crossing is a means of analyzing compound characters. It is also a 
means of combining the elements of such characters, and of building up the 
original type out of its components. In some cases the compound nature of a 
character may be evident, in others it is not, and in most cases it is as yet 
doubtful. So it is clear that a combination gained by crossing may assume the 
aspect of something quite new, and this will be nearly always the case where 
it is not possible to discern the exact relation of the “new” character to 
those of the parents used for the cross. 

If now this “new” character happens to have been present in some of the 
ancestors of the crossed types, it will resemble a reversion to this lost 
feature, and, provided no other explanation offers itself, it will easily be 
taken for an example of atavism. Looking at this inference from another 
point of view we are led to suppose that perhaps many cases registered now 
as atavism caused by crossing may probably originate in this way. 

In other words, we may expect in all cases, where a compound character 
has been lost in the course of evolution, but where its components still exist 
in separate species or varieties, that it will be possible to rebuild the old 
characters by combining the partial ones by means of crossing. Such a com- 
bination would evidently deserve the title of artificial atavism. Of course, I do 
not assert that all atavism is to be explained in this way, or that all crossing 
of the constituents of compound characters will have the expected result. I 
only think that in a number of instances the now existing difficulties may be 
overcome by this method. 

Taking a special instance, the colors of flowers present themselves in the 
first rank. A great many of our garden flowers show large numbers of 
varities and sub-varieties that exhibit different colors. In the case of peren- 
nial plants, which are sold as plants and not as seed, it is evident that each 
degree in the fluctuating variability of a color may give a distinct so-called 
variety, as even this degree is constant enough when propagated by buds. But 
in the case of annuals and biennials, and even with all such species as used 
to be sold as seeds, this possibility disappears, and only such features as are 
transmitted in the course of generations may be used as good differences be- 
tween the varieties of commerce. Each such variety has its own character, 
which remains constant and recurs in each succeeding generation, even if it 
is subject to much fluctuating and individual variability. 


18 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 


In the case of simple flower-colors which are not built up of different © 
units the number of the color varieties is of course a limited one, and is 
even often reduced to the existence of a white flowered form. But if the 
colors are compound, and consist of two or more units, we ordinarily find a 
greater array of differently colored types, in so much more as the degree of 
composition of the original colors is greater. Besides the white variety, many 
blue flowers have a red form; so have many dark-red species a white and flesh- 
colored form (Varieties carnea), etc. Some very beautiful flowers have a 
darker color at the base of their petals, and such species often exhibit a variety 
in which the so-called “heart” is wanting. Other flowers are mottled, and 
have also spotless forms, etc. In all such cases the compound nature of the 
original color-type seems to offer itself as the most plausible conception and as 
a basis for further experiments. 

If now we go through the lists of color varieties named in the commer- 
cial seed catalogues or in any descriptive horticultural work, we ordinarily 
find the type of the original wild species and a white variety as the two 
extremes of the series. Between these two we find a larger or smaller number 
of intermediate color forms, and we may assume that these, or some of them, 
are to be regarded as the elementary parts into which the original mixture may 
be split up. And if we apply this reasoning to these intermediate forms, we 
may come to two well-defined inferences, which it will be possible to test by 
experiment. The first of these is, that by crossing the original with the 
white variety the different intermediate types may be obtained. The second 
inference is the reverse of the first, and assumes that by crossing the inter- 
mediate types or at least by crossing the principal ones among them we could 
return to the original color of the wild species. 

To test this argument I have chosen the common snapdragon (Antir- 
rhinum majus). But before giving the detailed description of my experi- 
ments I must point out that Mendel, in his celebrated memoir on hybrids, 
has briefly discussed the possibility of the compound nature of the colors of 
most of our flowers, and has clearly formulated his conviction that by this 
supposition it would be possible to explain their most curious behavior in the 
few crossing experiments he had made with them. In fact, he says in the 
introduction to his paper, “Experience of artificial fertilization, such as is 
effected with ornamental plants in order to obtain new variations in color, 
has led to the experiments which will here be discussed.”* 

The experiments which I am now going to describe will give an entire 
confirmation of Mendel’s predictions.** 

The common snapdragon, Antirrhinum majus, is cultivated in our gardens 
under many beautifully colored varieties. The wild species or original form 
is of a dark red color, but there are also a white variety and many inter- 
mediate types. These varieties are constant from seed and remain pure as 
long as occasional crosses with other forms are excluded. The dark-red color 


_ ™*A translation of Mendel’s paper was published by the Royal Horticultural Society 
in their Journal, vol. 26, 1901, and is to be found in Bateson’s work on Mendel’s princi- 
ples of heredity, 1902, pp. 40—95. 

_ **For a fuller statement of my experiments with Antirrhinum and for the descrip- 
tion of similar investigations with other species, I must refer the reader to the second 


volume of my ‘‘Mutationstheorie” (Leipzig, Veit & Co.), and especially t 
on “Die Zerlegung der Bluthenfarbe,” pp. 194—206. oe pecially 10: ies 


ON ARTIFICIAL ATAVISM. 19 


of the wild plant is evidently of a compound character and consists of a 
series of single color forms, including two elements of yellow, one con- 
fined to the underlip, which remains when the yellow is elsewhere lost in the 
corolla. But these yellow characters I have not included in my experiments, 
though, of course, their behavior in my hybrids was often observed. To 
determine the number of these units would necessitate a much longer study 
of the cultures than I was able to give them. 

The red color consists essentially of two characters, a flesh-color with 
lively red lips, and a white or nearly white tube. These two characters are 
separately represented by two distinct varieties called respectively ‘“‘flesh- 
colored” and “Delila.” Both of them I found fairly constant from seed. In 
the following account of my experiments I will confine myself to these two 
elements and leave aside further analysis. 

The statement here given that these two characters are the principal com- 
ponents of the original red color rests upon results gained by crossing this 
type with the white variety, and cultivating the second generation, viz., the 
children of the hybrids. I observed that Antirrhinum majus yielded a good 
crop of seeds when fertilized with its own pollen. It is an easy operation to 
castrate and fertilize them, and I always enclose the whole raceme in a bag 
of parchment paper to exclude the visits of insects. These bags are very 
effective for such experiments, and are impervious to the weather for two or 
three weeks or more.* I never used seed which had not been fertilized by 
myself. 

My crossing was made in the summer of 1896. Some specimens of the 
white variety were castrated and pollinated with the normal red type. Next 
year I had a great many dark red flowering hybrids, and fertilized none of 
them with their own pollen. For various reasons they did not give enough 
seed to cultivate the next or second generation in sufficient number of indi- 
viduals. Nevertheless, the splitting up of the red color in its various com- 
ponents was to be seen in the different lots, each obtained from the seeds of 
one self-fertilized plant. I give the figures for a lot of forty-nine specimens, 
all children of one hybrid mother, in which the separation of the different 
units was sharp enough to count the principal types without any difficulty. 
These were four, viz., red and white, the colors of the grandparents, and 
besides the two types named above as the components of the original dark-red 
color. 


I counted— 
IDG gane 3 SA SAG, Ba a 51% 
er MCU Oe erat cleric cred enc s als nic 5 sb este bids ads nae cele s 16% 
IDEM: a carte opis colo then Os0 Se Re OO ace ee et eae 31% 
Mab comet e erate NSA TA 4 fa ores aa" sie 6 ote lols "a Nog. avalos mea Bie eel Bee a 2% 


A great many of these plants were self-fertilized in parchment bags, and 
of some of them the seeds were sown next year (1899). Of course, the seeds 
were gathered and sown separately for each plant. 

I chose the progeny of a dark-red colored hybrid of 1898, which split up 
next year in the same manner as did the former generation. I had in all 


* They were made by Mr. P. J. Schmitz in Dusseldorf (Germany), and are made of 
the same material as the bags commonly used for protecting grapes against the stings 
-of wasps. 


20 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 


169 flowering children of this specimen, and found the following figures for 
the four principal types: 


Watkare des meaeucsietr as ce ieee ions ae cise athe eee eee 58% 
EES COLO TE ari Arise cossce ecisors. cla bekieihts Sarai tavsttevaeeeieyeale 17% 
IDS TIE Waa a Seles bistacn Goes ore eric OUP ein coc oRIaS Oar 20% 
IW INIEGs Meat ten ete pattie wien fe tet ican Setidensteas wate tyvee er atee 4% 


These figures evidently indicate the same law of division as the first series, 
but are to be assumed as a more careful representation, inasmuch as they are 
gained from a greater number of individuals (169 instead of 49). 

The explanation of these figures is to be derived from Mendel’s laws 
for hybrids* under the assumption of the compound character of the original 
color. On this assumption we have two pairs of antagonistic characters, viz. : 


Flesh-colored and white. 
Delila and white. 


The white is evidently to be taken as the absence of both of the two 
opposite colors. It is not very easy to realize this condition, but yet it is clear 
that the white may be nothing but the absence of any color. It is a negative 
character, and is, if I may be allowed the comparison, simply the negation of 
color. But now if the color is composed of two elements, only the negative 
of both can lead to the white. Continuing this reasoning, I find that if we 
take away from the original dark-red the flesh-color character, there will 
remain the Delila, and if we remove the Delila the flesh-color will remain. 
The white as the negative of the other component will be concealed in most 
cases by the remaining positive character. 

From this reasoning we are justified to regard the crossing of red x white 
as a di-hybrid crossing consisting of 


Flesh-colored x white and Della x white 

or F x W and Dex\Vic 
and in this way we come to a proposition equal to that worked out by MENDEL 
for his crossings with two different pairs of antagonistic characters. 

My original crossing is therefore to be represented by 

White X Red 

or W-+W’ X F+D 

In the first generation the negative character is recessive, as is ordinarily 
the case, and all the hybrids are 


W--W’-LE--D. 
or F+D 
or Dark red. 


In the following generation these dark red hybrids split up according to 


the formula: 
(F+W)? (D+W’)’ 
or (F+2FW+W) (D+2DW’+W’) 
which gives: 
FD-+-FW’+DW-+WW’-+2FDW’-+2F W W’-+2DWW’+2FDW-+4FWDW’. 
Now if W and W’ are only the negatives of F and D, the positive result is: 
FD+F+D+W-+ ee +2D+2FD-+4FD or, 


FD= Dark-red = 56.25% 
A F = Flesh-colored = 18.75% 
3 D = Delila = 18.75% 
1 W = White = 6.25% 


*Ber. d. deut. bot. Ges. 18:83. 1900. 


ON ARTIFICIAL ATAVISM. 21 


In other terms, if the dark-red color is composed of flesh-colored and 
Delila, and the antagonistic character of both these elements is white, the 
crossing of dark-red and white must give dark-red hybrids, which in the fol- 
lowing generation must split up in four types according to the given distribu- 
tion. I found, as above said: 


Big Ist a 2nd Gen. 

ark-re 51 58% 6.2 
Flesh-colored 16% 17 vA Ree 
Delila 31% 20% 18.75% 
White 2% 4% 6.25% 


The accordance is such as might be expected in view of the small number 
of individuals counted. 

If we look closer at the given combination series, we at once see that the 
white individuals have no other character besides this, and therefore must not 
be counted in their offspring. But this is not the case with the three other 
groups which contain partly constant types, and partly such as for one or 
the other character or for both are still hybrids and as such may split up again 
in the following generation. 

The series above given leads to the following conclusion: 


: Number. Constant. Hybrid. 
Dark-red 9 I 8 
Flesh-colored 3 I 2 
Delila 3 I 2 
White I I oO 


In other terms, if the dark-red, the flesh-colored, and the Delila children 
of the first hybrids are self-fertilized, and their progeny is studied when flower- 
ing, we may expect to find some of them constant and others dividing and 
showing a certain amount of variation in the colors of their flowers. Only 
this variation will be limited as the combination series indicates. The flesh- 
colored hybrids do not contain the Delila characters, and therefore can only 
split up flesh-colored and white, according to the mono-hybrid rules. Conse- 
quently the Delila hybrids will only produce Delilas and Whites. But the 
dark-red may be hybrids as to both characters, or only one of them, the other 
being constant. In their progeny this constant character will always unite with 
the split-up element, and it will in this way be possible to calculate the whole 
composition of the progeny. 

I will now return to my experiments. We have already seen that among 
the dark-red hybrids of the second generation some divide up in the same 
manner as those of the first. As I said, I fertilized a series of hybrids of this 
second generation with their own pollen and had the following results: 

A plant of the Delila type gave 361 flowering children, all without excep- 
tion of the same type as the mother, which therefore was to be regarded as 
constant. In the same way I had from the seed of a flesh-colored specimen 260 
children, all with flesh-colored flowers only. Both of the possible constant new 
combinations were thus gained by crossing, and this undoubtedly is one of the 
chief points in Mendel’s interpretations of the di-hybrids. 

The figures as given above show that hybrids of the types of Delila and 
the flesh-colored forms may also split up in the next generation into their own 
color and white. According to the law of mono-hybrids, there are to be ex- 
pected in these cases 34 of colored and 14 of white offspring. I had only two 


22 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 


sowings, both with the seed of a flesh-colored mother, which showed this 
division. One of them gave 489 individuals with 83% flesh-colored and 17% 
white ones. The other consisted of 156 specimens, and of them 80% were 
flesh-colored and 20% white. 

The most interesting results are evidently to be expected when one of the 
two pairs of antagonistic characters has become constant while the other has 
remained hybrid. From the table given above two of these combinations are 
possible in one case, viz.: 

Constant flesh-colored + Delila X white. 
Constant Delila -++ Flesh-colored < white. 

It is evident that in both of the combinations the hybrid must show the 
sum of the constant and the dominant characters, or flesh-colored -++ Delila, 
which gives the dark-red original type. Such hybrids cannot be distinguished 
either from those where both pairs are hybrid, nor from those where both the 
elements have become constant. All of these are dark-red, and it is therefore 
among the 56.25%. dark-red specimens that chance must help us to work out 
the different types, if it is not possible to cultivate the progeny of a large 
enough portion of them to secure the same result directly. 

When fertilizing a hybrid of the type Constant flesh-colored +- Delila X 
white all the children will be flesh-colored. As to the other element they will 
split up into 75% Delila and 25% white. The result will be: 

75% Delila + Flesh-color = Dark-red. 
25% White + Flesh-color = Flesh-color. 

I counted the progeny of a dark-red hybrid and found among 390 flowering 
children 74% dark-red and 26% flesh-colored. The mother was therefore a 
hybrid of the type in question. 

In the same way the Delila component may be constant and the flesh- 
color hybrid, and the calculation gives: 

75% Delila + Flesh-color = Dark-red. 
25% Delila + White = Delila. 

I also observed this case among my sowings, and counted among the 

children of the dark-red hybrid: 
799% Dark-red. 
21% Delila. 

From these experiments it is clear that the different combinations which 
may be calculated by Mendel’s laws, on the assumption that the color of wild 
species is composed of two principal elements, viz., flesh-color and Delila, are, 
in fact, to be met with when the individual hybrids of the second generation 
are self-fertilized, and the progeny or third generation is cultivated separately 
for each of them. This method may be called a hybridological analysis. 

Once found, the result may be calculated by the method of hybridological 
synthesis, and in a more easy and direct way. With this object in view I 
cultivated in the summer of 1899 three specimens of the flesh-colored variety 
and fertilized them with the pollen of the Delila type. I cultivated their prog- 
eny in separate lots, and had 124, 142 and 187 individuals from the three 
mothers, or 453 in all. But all of them without exception produced red 
flowers, the same dark-red type as the original form. This was the proof that 
this original color may be built up from its constituents, and that the varieties 


ON ARTIFICIAL ATAVISM. 23 


taken as such at the outset are really the true units, or at least the. true 
principal units of the combination. 

The result of this last crossing experiment may be regarded as a case of 
atavism and as the type of a long series of instances of atavism caused by 
crossing. To show this more clearly we must suppose that the original dark- 
red type had died out and was therefore unknown, or perhaps it may suffice 
to assume that the relation of the garden varieties to the wild form was 
doubtful. Not having the component characters of the red color, we would 
only be justified in saying that the crossing of the two varieties in question 
produced a new character not seen in any of them, but belonging to the wild 
or supposed ancestor. Evidently many crossings of cultivated varieties must 
in this way lead to cases of reversion. 

Briefly stated, the results described here for Antirrhinum and controlled 
by experiments with the other species, we may say: 


1. It is possible to split up the colors of some flowers by crossing the 
colored type with the white variety. 

2. The constituents arrived at by this splitting often follow Mendel’s laws. 

3. By crossing the appropriate constituents the original compound color 
may be rebuilt. 

4. Instances of atavism may in this way be artificially produced. 


H. F. Roberts: Before raising a point suggested indirectly by this paper I would 
like to ask whether in making one’s first cross and obtaining one’s first group of 
hybrids, it may not be necessary (in view of the fact that the plant is a composite and 
all its organs and the sporophyls included are variable and differ from each other) to 
take all of one’s pollen from a certain parent from one sporophyl? In other words, 
supposing you were using as a male parent a flower which is didynamous, the stamens 
of two lengths, is it not possible that the pollen from stamens of different lengths may 
differ from each other in potency; and if so, would it not be necessary to preserve one’s 
pollen that is used in producing a certain group of hybrids from a single sporophyl in 
order to be within the limits of the greatest possible accuracy? 

W. J. Spillman: I am not going to answer the question, but I do say that there 
is only one place to get the answer, and that is in his laboratory. 

W. Bateson: The interest of the subject of Professor De Vries is perfectly apparent 
to everybody. Two points present themselves to me. I am myself engaged in trying to 
determine the constituents which break up a compound character into its component 
parts, and I am endeavoring to work out the relation of those to each other. My first 
comment is this: Say it is imagined that you can analyze a character into its component 
characters; it is obviously easy to form the converse conception, namely, that you can 
synthesize characters so as to rebuild a compound. But the question arises, how can it 
be possible to rebuild a compound character which consists of more than two compo- 
nents? According to the rules, the two opposite characters are contradictory to each 
other, and no individual can carry more than two of them. Consequently, if you decom- 
pose a compound character into more than three components, I do not see how by any 
scheme that we could formulate you can rebuild even those organs which shall contain 
those three characters. The second point is that I don’t think Professor De Vries is 
strictly accurate in describing such rebuilding as a synthesis at all. Your purple sweet 
pea as you will breed it up by crossing is not a synthesis of the original sweet pea, 
because it will not break up into the original components which the original sweet pea 
contained, but it will only break up into the two components which you put into it. 
The original, from which the original forms were produced, bred true, but the synthesis 
will not. It is an apparent synthesis, but not a real one, and in my opinion the problem 
of synthesis is one which remains wholly unexplained. 

O. F. Cook: The question of the synthesis of these characters has been raised, 
and that of the identity or the dissimilarity of hybrids and mutations. I simply want to 


24 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 


make a protest. I believe there is another way to interpret the whole class of phenomena 
that does not include the apparent contradictions. I don’t believe that it is necessary 
to explain these phenomena by assuming any concrete things which are combined and 
separated and so on; that is, there is no reason why these are not mutations in the one 
case as much as in another. And I believe that it will make it reasonable to believe that 
the crossing of two mutations restores the parental type without the necessity of per- 
ceiving a concrete or supposedly concrete combination of characters or separation of 
them into aggregate units such as has been attempted by many theorists, from Darwin 
and Weissmann down. Of course, it is now put on the basis of characters instead of 
being put, as Darwin did it, on the basis of pangens, or whatever you choose to call 
them. 

H. H. Groff: I trust that none of the plant breeders who are here to-day will for 
one moment attempt to place any limitations upon their effort by endeavoring to find 
definite results—certain clearly defined lines—as the end of their work. There are two 
classes of workers in this field of hybridism: One for finding out the why and where- 
fore, the other for the producing of results. I think I may claim Mr. Burbank, of Santa 
Rosa, as probably the greatest hybridist in the world of a practical character. And in 
that field we should not place any limitations upon the possibilities of our work. It may 
simplify the situation very much if we look to those greatest manifestations of the hybrid 
form that are available at the present moment. For example, we might take the human 
race, showing that there is really no possibility of limitation. The worker should look 
upon his work as far as possible from the position, if it were possible, of the great 
Creator of the universe, and assist in the advancement and improvement of the human 
race at the present time. Rather than place any limitations we should work to an 
unlimited degree for the advancement of our specialty. I have had the satisfaction of 
producing some 250,000 hybrids of my specialty, and the more I work the more I am 
satisfied that the broadest and most liberal view should be taken of our work and its 
future. 

The Chair: I believe this statement of Mr. Groff, of Ontario, is entirely correct. 
We should not suppose there are any limitations; and not only not place them on 
ourselves, but not suppose there are any limitations upon the possibilities in this field. 


A paper entitled ‘‘Some Conclusions,” by Max Leichtlin, of Baden-Baden, Austria, 
was read by Secretary Barron. 


SOME CONCLUSIONS 
By Max Leichtlin, Baden-Baden. 


Iirst of all, a suitable time is necessary to have plants ready to take seed; 
a comparatively warm day, after a rain, with no sunshine, is best for about 
six-tenths of all plants; some others want a very dry atmosphere, according 
to the climate of their native country. No fertilization should be attempted 
before the stigma is ripe, a condition which after some practice is easily 
recognized. 

The pollen to use should be looked at with the magnifying glass, and 
must be chosen neither too fresh nor overripe. 

After fertilization it is in many cases well to put a hand glass over the 
flower to give it for a day or two a higher temperature than that of the 
surrounding air. 

Pollen if gathered in good condition can be kept in small glass vessels, 
corked well, for several days without losing its fertilizing power. Some 
genera are shy seed bearers; for instance, Carygophyllacex, because the pollen 
of the flower is ripe long before the stigma is developed. 

As a rule, in eight cases out of ten the female parent has the greatest 
influence on the form of the offspring; the male gives color. In the majority 
of cases the offsprings have larger flowers than either parent. 

Nature in its eternal providence has put, moreover, an end to endless 
encroachment of man by the production of hybrids which are and remain 
infertile. Hybrids often become infertile, and if recrossed the offspring 
mostly become so. Whether fertilization is possible or not can be ascertained 
at once by regarding the form of the pollen grains under the microscope. If 
their forms are nearly alike, it will do; if the form is very different, no 
fertilization is possible. 

The Chair: This brief paper of Max Leichtlin raises a question that has not before 
been referred to, and that is, how long will pollen retain its vitality? When I make any 
remarks I beg to say that I make no pretension to scientific exactness; but I would say 
that it would appear that this vitality can be preserved for several days by keeping it 
under a glass, which is quite contrary, 1 think, to ordinary experience. To _ illus- 
trate: In growing vegetables in a greenhouse for family use, we find it necessary 
sometimes to have artificial fertilization, and for that purpose it has been my practice 
for many years just at this time of the year, before the first frost comes, to have a 
quantity of pollen gathered from the plants out of doors, plants growing in the open. 


This, put in an ordinary box or vessel of any sort, retains its vitality for at least six 
months, That is to say, all through the winter and as late as March, I have fertilized 


26 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 


tomatoes with pollen that has been gathered outdoors in September. We are very pat- 
ticular to have a crop of tomatoes early in the spring. 

Then again, there are some varieties of European grapes, as the Muscat, which we 
grow under glass in this country, and which are also grown under glass chiefly in 
England, that are very poor fertilizers. Now you can take the pollen from other grapes 
and keep it for a considerable time to use for the fertilization of the Muscat by putting 
the latter cluster in a glass and blowing the pollen upon it. There are perhaps some 
here who can state how long that pollen retains its vitality. 

S. Henshaw, called upon by the President, said: It is my experience, as that of 
every grape grower, that the Muscats are very deficient in pollen; they make a very poor 
bunch if they are not artificially fertilized. I have often gathered the pollen of the Black 
Hamburgh and kept it for two months in a Mason jar. Fertilization of the Muscat was 
attained by inserting the cluster into the jar and raising a cloud of pollen by blowing 
into it with a blowpipe. That has always made a perfect bunch. Leave a Muscat to its 
own fertilization, and you get a very poor bunch. tiow long the poilen woulda keep I 
am not able to say, but I have often kept it for two months. : 

D. G. Fairchild: The pollen is regularly kept from one year to another—I can’t 
say just how long—to fertilize the early varieties. 

William Saunders: How is that pollen kept? In glass tubes, or how? 

The Chair: Mr. Henshaw states that he kept the grape pollen in an ordinary’ glass 
jar or preserving jar. He used the term ‘‘Mason jar,’’ which is perhaps the most 
common form of jar in use in this country. But the question is asked by Dr. Saunders, 
of Canada, how can this pollen be best kept? 

William Saunders: Should it be kept in closed or in open vessels, or in paper? 
My experience is that paper is of no value for keeping pollen. I keep it in a closed 
bottle, and at the same temperature. 

D. G. Fairchild: I have kept pollen for a year, put away in a closed vessel in 
paper, and it had no effect; it had lost its vitality. It had been kept over a year. 

The Chair: It is a practical question of considerable importance for both practical 
results and for scientific experiments. 

C. W. Ward: I have had a little experience in keeping carnation pollen. I have 
found that put away in paper it didn’t keep; but where I put it in a little vial and 
closely corked it kept for a considerable time. 

H. F. Roberts: We also have come to the method which Mr. Ward mentioned, 
using little homeopathic vials with corks, being sure there are no parts of, the anther 
mixed with the pollen grains unless they are pretty thoroughly dried. If they are 
greenish when they are put in, there is likely to be some moisture on the inside and 
some mould is apt to develop. 

D. G. Fairchild: There is a very interesting piece of work in which I have been 
interested for a number of years, and I would ask what is the best way of shipping 
pollen. I have often found it difficult to secure varieties of fruits or plants for hybridiz- 
ing. I am not interested in plant hybridizing myself, but have been collecting all over 
the world varieties for hybridizers to work with. If there is a possibility of shipping 
pollen, it makes it practically possible to travel through a country in the spring time and 
secure varieties which you could not otherwise get. It is a very important point in the 
work with which I am connected. Should this pollen be dried in sunlight, or is it impor- 
tant that it should be dried in the shade? I know that in the tropics many seeds that 
are dried in the sunlight are ruined. Is there any one who has had any particufar 
experience in this matter of drying the pollen? 

The Chair: The paper which is under consideration states that that depends some- 
what upon the characteristics of the country in which the plant originates. That is, if it 
is in an arid country or semi-arid country, naturally the pollen would retain its vitality 
waoen dried in the sun; while if dried in a moist atmosphere in its natural habitat it 
would naturally best retain its vitality if dried in the shade. 

N. E. Hansen: I have found that in the greenhouse in full sunlight pollen could 
not be properly dried, but the moisture is discharged, and if the pollen is put into a 
vial early a mould is formed. Pollen must be dried perfectly, and in ie shade, for 
safety in using later. 

H. C. Price: We had some experience in shipping pollen this last year, and have 


SOME CONCLUSIONS. rH as 


used small pasteboard boxes. We find just the point that Professor Hansen makes: 
That there is danger of mould if the pollen be not perfectly dried. We use these paste- 
board boxes to take up the moisture if it is present, and they have been very satisfactory 
in our use. I am speaking of pollen of apple, plum and cherry, and we have been 
sending it out from the experiment station packed in small boxes for individual use. 

S. A. Beach: In my experience with the grape pollen I have found that a good 
method to secure a good quantity of pollen and at the same time to protect the blossoms 
from the visits of insects is to gather the flowers when they are about to open, transfer 
them to the laboratory, and have some sized paper spread over a vessel of water; punch 
a hole in the paper and stick the stem of the blossom into the water and cover it so as 
to make a moist chamber. In that way, so far as my experience goes, you can get the 
best development, have the best success in the opening of the anthers, and secure the 
largest percentage of pollen. Then after you have secured the pollen in that way, the 
method Professor Price mentioned is, I believe, the one to follow. 

W. B. Alwood: I would like to note an experience with the pollen of wheat. 1 
found that by going into a field in the morning after a rain, say, at night, on a bright, 
sunny morning at nine o’clock, and plucking the heads which seemed to be mature and 
holding them in my hands in the sun, I could observe the blooms open and the fila- 
ments elongate, and the pollen would be poured out very rapidly, and my idea was that 
in that way I could collect pollen of wheat in a little watchglass very rapidly. And I 
found that pollen so collected was very effective in pollenizing the female plant later, 
but I never kept it over one day. 

H. F. Roberts: We have kept pollen for three days and found it very successful 
in use. j 

Occasionally pollen of Amherstia nobilis, a very handsome ornamental tree grown 
in the Botanic Gardens in the West Indies, has been forwarded from Trinidad to Ja- 
maica in order to fertilize flowers in the latter island. The tree is a shy seed-bearer 
and the plan of obtaining pollen from other sources was adopted with good results. As 
far as I can remember the anthers were gathered early in the morning and _ placed 
between sheets of blotting paper and desvatched by post in cardboard boxes. I should 
say that a similar plan might be successfully adopted with other leguminous plants when 
seed is not freely produced. 


TTI 
+o MW, 


The following paper on “Suggestions for the Classification of Hybrids,’ by R. 1. 
Lynch, Curator of the Botanic Garden, Cambridge, England, was read by the Secretary: 


CLASSIFICATION OF HYBRIDS 


By R. I, Lynch, Cambridge. 


The most important suggestion I could make is that attention be drawn 
at this conference to the importance of classifying all experimental results. 
Investigators often want to know what plants have been found to behave in 
this or that particular way. They may desire to reobserve from a new point 
of view or to carry further the results in which they may be interested. The 
classification I have in view would always be valuable for reference, and 
would assist, I think, very largely in the determination of laws yet unknown. 


What I mean is illustrated (as to hybrids) by work I have done myself 
in a paper on the Evolution of Plants in the journal of the Royal Horticultural 
Society of London, Vol. XXV. Some of my headings are very nearly as 
follows: 


Bigeneric hybrids, fertile and true from seed. 

Bigeneric hybrids, infertile. 

Hybrids which come true from seed, never reverting. 

Hybrids that are more fertile than either parent. 

Hybrids which return, in a generation or two, to parent species. 

Wild hybrids which take a position independently of either parent 
and are equal to “species,” etc., etc. 


It would be of interest, for instance, to collect examples of hybrids 
which at first were found nearly barren and which afterward became fertile— 
instances, also, of hybrids that are less fertile with either parent than 
with self. 

In this way, I am sure, much could be done of value, in suggestiveness, 
for the hybridist who is concerned only in practical results. 

My plan, I think, would be to ask the members of the conference to 
suggest all the heads they can think of—thus perhaps securing fresh ideas 
otherwise unexpressed—and afterward to circulate these heads (after editing) 
with the request that as many instances as possible should be given 
below them. 

Writers most usually, I think, adopt a botanical classification of natural 
orders, as does Focke in his Pflanzen-Mischlinge, but from the trouble I have 
had myself in seeking out examples of this or that behavior I feel sure that 
much advantage would be derived by classifying in accordance with behavior 
itself, “infinite” though it may be in point of variety. 


30) HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 


The Chair: Considering the great amount of work that has been done with hybrids, 
and also what will unquestionably yet be done, it is very important that there should 
be a system. This subject of classification becomes very important in this connection. 
Perhaps it would be well if the Secretary would read again the classification proposed 
by Mr. Lynch. 

That part of the paper was read again by the Secretary. 

The Chair: This classification appears io be based entirely upon behavior, and not 
upon scientific or botanical characteristics. 

L. H. Bailey: I think that the first important thing for us to do is to determine 
upon a definition of the term hybrid. There are two notions current regarding what is a 
hybrid and what is not, and, of course, both ideas are correct so far as the matter of 
definition is concerned. There are those who think that the term hybrid should be 
restricted to crosses between pure species. Every one knows, of course, that this is 
merely arbitrary, as, in fact, true species aré arbitrary. It has seemed to some (and 1 
am one of those) that if it is important to recognize species, it is also important to 
recognize hybrids as crosses between species. I still believe in the righetousness of that 
cause, but I have come to the conclusion that we cannot hold to that distinction. he 
reason why we cannot hold to that distinction is a matter of usage, for all language 
comes to be governed finally by usage. Here is the work of Mendel coming into notice, 
and the work of Bateson, and of De Vries, and of others abroad, and also our own 
people who are making progress, as, for example, those in the Department of Agri- 
culture. In all these works actual things are being done and actual records are being 
made, and not mere talk being indulged in about them, and we find the use of the word 
‘hybrid in its large sense. I am willing now to use the word hybrid in the more general 
sense, and then distinguish the different classes of hybrids in as many divisions as you 
wish—species hybrids, variety hybrids, form hybrids, and so on. Now I don’t understand 
from Mr. Lynch’s paper what is his fundamental conception of a hybrid; and that is 
fundamental to a classification. 

W. M. Hays: It would be a good thing if we had some central place to which we 
could all send detailed facts as to the ease with which species and genera hybridize, that 
these facts might be available to those who in future want to use certain crosses to 
produce economic or scientific results. I feel that in many cases we go ahead and do a 
lot of experimenting where it is almost, or quite, an impossibility to produce hybrids. If 
we knew better the work of others we would not expend so much labor. We need not 
only to know what will hybridize and what will not, but also in many cases to know how - 
easy or how difficult it is to hybridize certain things. 

H. H. Groff: All this leads back into my former statement: That there are two 
classes of workers—one engaged in finding out the how and why, the other looking for 
the practical results. The suggestion before us is very good for those who want to find 
out the true inwardness of things; but, as a practical worker for final results (and in 
this I believe I am supported again by Mr. Burbank, who no longer keeps records of 
this character), I know the volume of work makes it absolutely impossible to make 
such records. 

W. J. Spillman: I agree fully with Professor Hays that it is a matter of very 
great importance to the practical producer of new and valuable varieties that he should 
have as much knowledge as possible as to where crosses may be made and the details 
of the methods that must be used to secure successful crosses. There ought to be some 
organization by which data of this kind could be collected. For instance, if we knew 
the crosses that Mr. Groff had effected, it would possibly save a great many of us a 
great deal of useless labor, because somebody else has done that certain work. It would 
save us a great many disappointments. If we knew, for instance, that he had found it 
possible to cross two certain varieties, or two species, or two genera, it would be of 
great value. I want to add one remark, too, to what Professor Bailey has very well 
said. I don’t see how we can ever use the term hybrid in its general sense, because 
there are hybrids that are more widely separated even than general. 

H. H. Groff: Local experience and climatic conditions are to be taken into con- 
sideration. Mr. Leichtlin, of Baden-Baden, has told me that he had failed with some 
types both as male and female parents which, on the contrary, I had found fertile eh 
ways. I attributed it to climatic conditions, 


CLASSIFICATION OF HYBRIDS. 31 


W. M. Hays: If we had a central place, as the Department of Agriculture, for 
keeping these records and having them put into accessible form, the records could easity 
be gotten from such men as this gentleman, who has had so much experience; not per- 
haps by writing, but by verbal statements compiled by men in the department. Many 
of those things could be compiled and in the end would be useful. As things are the 
records are apt to die with these men. 

L. H. Bailey: Our Department of Agriculture, aside from its experimental work, 
is for the purpose of acting as a clearing house of experience. It might be well to take 
an expression of this conference before we close as to whether or no it would be useful 
for such records to be kept at that place. 

The Chair: It is entirely proper for this conference to give expression to a matter 
of this kind, and doubtless it would receive due consideration from the Department 
of Agriculture. I understand the proposition to be that a bureau of statistics of experi- 
mental work should be maintained. After all, this is a very old thing. The world from 
the beginning has been doing work over and over and over again in every department 
of knowledge, and the general idea has been that in this experience of each investigator, 
and of each generation, following another, real good has come, although there has been a 
very great deal of waste in it. But it is hardly worth while for an investigator who is 
making scientific investigations, when a thing has been demonstrated conclusively, to 
throw his life away on that line of work. And, on the other hand, if it is found that 
certain things can be done in a given line, it may be important for that fact to be known 
to future workers. 

W. M. Hays: There are here from the Department of Agriculture two gentlemen 
who have worked particularly along this line, and I don’t know that any expression is 
needed. They will get the point, I am sure, and will work it up in practice. 

The Chair: Perhaps the desire will be sufficiently attained by the suggestion that 
is made. Possibly those two members of the department who are here will give some 
attention to it as to its practicability. 

J. B. Norton: We have been and are still carrying out in an index as full a record 
as we can get of published literature. As fast as it comes in, and as fast as we get the 
Opportunity to do it, it is indexed, and in such a way that we can get at the subject - 
and the author. In this way we are gradually accumulating a fair index of what has 
been published. But, of course, all that is done and not published has to remain outside 
of that index, except as we can get it from letters. The letters that come into the 
Plant Breeding Laboratory of the Department of Agriculture are indexed when anything 
of importance is found in them. This work has to be done in spare moments, and the 
spare moments of a plant breeder’s time are few; and the thing is growing, particularly 
in the summer time, when most of us are busy at work all the time; but in the winter 
we have usually two or three clerks devoted to this kind of work. In that way the index 
is growing. Of course, on this basis it would be fairly easy to compile anything that Was 
furnished by the different plant breeders in the country, and with the addition of one 
person whose time was devoted more or less to the bibliography very much of value 
could be added. We have not that person now on the force, but with increased appro- 
priations that is one of the things that will come. 

Q. F. Cook: Mr. President, did I understand Mr. Bailey to suggest that the sense 
of the meeting be taken on this matter? 

The Chair: The Chair understood that to be Professor Bailey’s suggestion. 

L. H. Bailey: I merely threw out the suggestion as to whether that was worth 
while. I don’t know that it is necessary to put the matter in the form of a resolution. 

O. F. Cook: It seems to me, Mr. President, that. some formulated resolution of the 
meeting which was sent to the Secretary of Agriculture might at least be of some assist- 
ance in bringing about proper provision for the work which Mr. Norton has just men- 
tioned. Some systematic index of these plant hybrids could in that way be easily kept. 
But if the resolution should include a recommendation to include all classes of miscel- 
laneous information about hybrids it would, I think, be such a colossal task—possibly 
not at the beginning, but in the course of a few years—that the scheme would break 
down. An index of hybrids produced, with notes as to their parentage, could, I think, be 
very easily kept in the Department, and a resolution to that effect should be good. 

The Chair: Would Mr. Bailey be willing tc take this matter under consideration 


32 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 


during the conference, and if he thinks advisable prepare suitable resolutions to be 
acted upon at a future sitting of the conference? 

L. H. Bailey: I would be willing to be one of others who should consider the 
‘matter. 

It was moved my C. L. Watrous that the matter be referred to a committee of five 
to be appointed by the Chair, who should, if they should find it advisable, prepare reso- 
lutions to be submitted to the conference. 

J. B. Norton: I wish to make a general statement in this connection. The Library 
of Congress has a plan of printing and publishing index cards of many subjects. They 
are already taking up a number of scientific matters, and Mr. Putnam, with the com- 
mittee representing the American Association of Agricultural Colleges and Experiment 
Stations, is to print subject indices, not merely of books, but also of subjects within 
books, and furnish them at the mere cost of printing to any institution or library or 
individual desiring them. This is one of the matters that might come in under that 
order. The matter of the Department of Agriculture in the several bureaus and divisions 
taking up and doing the work of cataloguing or preparing the copy for these printed 
cards is being very favorably considered, and is indeed, as I understand, being started, 
but it looks to me as if some one ought to be especially set to the task of looking to this 
particular phase of literature and facts. Some of the most important points involved are 
not to be found by the ordinary indices to literature. 

The motion was carried. The following were appointed by the Chair as members of 
such committee: C. L. Watrous, L. H. Bailey, W. M. Hays, N. L. Britton and H. H. 
Groff. 


DEFINITION OF “SPORT.” 


The Chair: If there be any miscellaneous business to be intro Jluced, it 
may be considered at this time. 

D. Morris: I should like to submit this question: I notice during the 
discussion we are talking about hybrids and sports. In English gardening 
_sports are limited as arising from bud variation. I don’t know whether that 
is the acceptance of the term here. We always accept the term sport as 
being applied to a plant arising from a bud variation and not from seminal 
variation. I notice that Dr. Saunders, speaking of the wheat that he obtained, 
said that bearded wheat appeared after a certain time. A gentleman present 
regarded that as a sport. I accepted that as arising from a bud variation, be- 
cause that is the only other way in which the thing could arise, since Dr. 
Saunders laid down the point that he had grown this wheat for some time 
and it was a pure stock, and bearded wheat appeared after a certain time; and 
a gentleman present suggested that that was a sport. We have exactly the 
same thing in the sugar cane. Now I have always accepted the term sport as 
1 believe it is always accepted in English gardening, viz., as a variation arising 
entirely from bud variation. It is very desirable that we should have a clear 
understanding in regard to the use of these terms. I was entirely misled by 
the remark made that the appearance of the bearded wheat was regarded as the 


result of a sport. 

W. J. Spillman: In this country, so far as I am aware, we do not understand 
that the term sport be confined to bud variation. Any individual that appears, either 
from a bud or from the seed, having a character that is apparently new, is decidedly 
unlike its parents in some characteristics—we call that a sport, be it from seed or from 
the bud. That is my understanding, at least. Isn’t that true, Professor Bailey, in your 
usual use of the term? ; 

L. H. Bailey: That is the way I use it, and it has been used so. I think that 
what Professor Morris says is true, that the English gardeners limit it as a bud 
variation; but in this country we call any marked variation a sport. How marked should 
be the variation to be a sport is a question. 


DEFINITION OF A SPORT. 33 


D. Morris: I take it that a sport among American horticulturists is simply a form 
or variation, simply an indefinite form with no particular character attached to it. It is 
another term for variation. 

L. H. Bailey: A very markea departure, a very marked variation. 

D. Morris: To what degree? 

L. H. Bailey: Oh, that is a matter for individual interpretation. 

W. Saunders: I think that in the practice in Canada we have followed the rule 
mentioned by Mr. Spillman and Professor Bailey, regarding all sorts of variations as 
sports. Take, for instance, the Arbor Vitae. We find it separated into globose forms, 
and pyramidal forms, and oval forms. Some of these may be set down to one form of 
variation and some to the other. The difficulty we see in restricting the use of the term 
sport to bud variation is that it might not always be easy to determine, unless you were 
on the spot, whether the form had arisen in one way or the other. I can see no 
objection to the use of the term sport in that general way. It is really synonymous with 
variation. 

S. Fraser: It seems to be accepted among many that any variation which you 
couldn’t tell anything about is classed as a sport, and everybody understands it at once. 
It is something unexplainable, and everybody at once knows all about it. 

D. Morris: In the case of Acer Negundo, you have a plant that is normal, with 
green leaves; a bud appears with variegated leaves. That bud is taken off and propa- 
gated, and that is called a sport. And certainly those who may use an English textbook 
should clearly understand that where sports are spoken of there they mean simply 
variations arising from the bud, and not from seed. 

W. J. Spillman: Has Professor Morris any term which is applied to what we call 
seed sports in this country? Suppose you should plant a seed of Acer Negundo, and a 
plant should come from that seed with variegated leaves, have you any name for that 
class of variation? We call that a sport; we call both of them sports, and distinguish 
the one arising from the seed as a seedling sport. 

D. Morris: But the very variation that you refer to as arising from the seedling 
may be a bud variation. It is rather uncommon, I think, for a variation of that char- 
acter—that is, the variegated leaves appearing from green leaves—to arise from a seedling. 
I should say that where it does occur it is a sport arising from bud variation. 

W. Saunders: In connection with that Acer Negundo, we have two forms of the 
tree, one a southern form, which is not hardy even in the western part of Ontario; and 
we have a northern form, which is hardy nearly up to the Mackenzie River. There is 
great difficulty sometimes in distinguishing between those forms. One of them, I have 
observed, has the leaflets usually convex, the other usually concave, but it is very 
difficult to distinguish between the two forms by their appearance; yet there is this 
marked distinction in their hardiness. Now who is to determine whether that is a form 
of bud variation, or whether it is a sport? It has probably come through the growing 
of the tree in these extreme differences in clime for a long series of years. We call 
that usually a ‘‘form”’ of the tree. 

D. Morris: A geographical form. 

W. Saunders: A geographical form, yes. And still it is very hard to have well 
defined lines to indicate all these variations. 

W. M. Hays: I don’t think there has been any year during the last twenty-five 
when I have not seen from five to fifty individuals of Acer Negundo which had leaves 
distinctly variegated with white and green. Now would leaves from the normal plant 
be called a sport in England, or would they be called a bud variation? 

W. J. Spillman: We had in this country, a good many years ago, a sport, as we 
called it, of this character: A sheep was born with short legs like a hog. That occurred 
in the State of Massachusetts, a well investigated case. An attempt was made to produce 
a breed of sheep descended from that animal. The advantage was that they couldn’t 
jump a fence like an ordinary sheep. The breed ran out, however, through inbreeding. 
Now we called that a sport, and I don’t think it can be called a bud variation. 

L. H. Bailey: I am afraid that this restriction of the term sport to the bud varia- 
tion is a modern one. I think that this case of the sheep and analogous ones were 
discussed by Mr. Darwin as sports, and I think they have been discussed as sports by a 
large number of the evolutionary writers since that time, 


oT) 


<9 in. 


ea 


ees a Pant lr ah ie 
“p yas, i hee PY ira Vf. wate TE 
Psi NEB ihe ean eee eo 


@. 
tS 
. 


ay? 
- 


The following paper by Luther Burbank was read by the Secretary: 


SOME OF THE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES OF 
PLANT BREEDING. 


Luther Burbank, Santa Rosa, Cal. 


Only the most limited view of plant breeding can be given in an ordinary 
thesis. It would be necessary to extend the subject through many volumes to 
give even a general view of what has already been demonstrated, and that 
which the clear light of science has yet to bring forth from the depths is too 
extensive even for the imagination to grasp, except through a full knowledge 
of what practical field work has already accomplished. 

The fundamental principles of plant breeding are simple, and may be stated 
in few words; the practical application of these principles demands the highest 
and most refined efforts of which the mind of man is capable, and no line of 
mental effort promises more for the elevation, advancement, prosperity and 
happiness of the whole human race. 

Every plant, animal and planet occupies its place in the order of Nature 
by the action of two forces—the inherent constitutional life force, with all its 
acquired habits, the sum of which is heredity; and the numerous complicated 
external forces, or environment. To guide the interaction of these two forces, 
both of which are only different expressions of the one eternal force, is and 
must be the sole object of the breeder, whether of plants or animals. 

When we look about us on the plants inhabiting the earth with ourselves 
and watch any species day by day we are unable to see any change in some of 
them. During a lifetime, and in some cases perhaps including the full breadth 
of human history, no remarkable change seems to have occurred. And yet 
there is not to-day one plant species which has not undergone great and, to a 
certain extent, constant change. 

The life forces of the plant in endeavoring to harmonize and adapt the 
action of its acquired tendencies to its strroundings may, through many gener- 
ations, slowly adapt itself to the necessities of existence, yet these same accrued 
forces may also produce sudden and, to one not acquainted with its past his- 
tory, most surprising and unaccountable changes of character. The very 
existence of the higher orders of plants which now inhabit the earth has been 
secured to them only by their power of adaptation to crossings, for through 
the variations produced by the combination of numerous tendencies, individuals 
are produced which are better endowed to meet the prevailing conditions of 
life. Thus to Nature’s persistence in crossing do we owe all that earth now 
producs in man, animals or plants, and this magnificently stupendous fact may 


36 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 


also be safely carried into the domains of chemistry as well, fot what is com- 
mon air and water but Nature’s earlier efforts in that line, and our nourishing 
foods but the result of myriad complex chemical affinities of later date? 

Natural and artificial crossing and hybridizing are among the principal 
remote causes of nearly all otherwise perplexing or unaccountable sports and 
strange modifications, and also of many of the now well established species. 
Variations without immediate antecedent crossing occur always and every- 
where from a combination of past crossings and environments, for potential 
adaptations often exist through generations without becoming actual, and when 
we fully grasp these facts there is nothing mysterious in the sudden appearance 
of sports; but still further intelligent crossings produce more immediate results 
and of great value, not to the plant in its struggle with natural forces, but to 
man by conserving and guiding its life forces to supply him with food, cloth- 
ing and innumerable other luxuries and necessities. Plant life is so common 
that one rarely stops to think how utterly dependent we are upon the quiet but 
magnificently powerful work which they are constantly performing for us. 

It was once thought that plants varied within the so-called species but very 
little, and that true species never varied. We have more lately discovered that 
no two plants are ever exactly alike, each one having its own individuality, and 
that new varieties having endowments of priceless value, and even distinct 
new species, can be produced by the plant breeder with the same precision that 
machinery for locomotion and other useful purposes are produced by the 
mechanic. 

The evolution and all the variations of plants are simply the means which 
they employ in adjusting themselves to external conditions: Each plant strives 
to adapt itself to environment with as little demand upon its forces as possible 
and still keep up in the race. The best endowed species and individuals win 
the prize, and by variation as well as persistence. The constantly varying 
external forces to which all life is everywhere subjected demand that the in- 
herent internal force shall always be ready to adapt itself or perish. 

The combination and interaction of these innumerable forces embraced in 
heredity and environment have given us all our bewildering species, none of 
which ever did or ever will remain constant, for the inherent life force must be 
pliable or outside forces will sooner or later extinguish it. Thus adaptability 
as well as perseverance is one of the prime virtues in plant as in human life. 

Plant breeding is the intelligent application of the forces of the human 
mind in guiding the inherent life forces into useful directions by crossing, to 
make perturbations or variations of these forces, and by radically changing 
environments, both of which produce somewhat similar results, thus giving a 
broader field for selection, which again is simply the persistent application of 
mental force to guide and fix the perturbed forces in the desired channels. 

Plant breeding is in its earliest infancy. Its possibilities and even its 
fundamental principles are understood by but few; in the past it has been 
mostly dabbling with tremendous forces which have been only partially appre- 
ciated, and has yet to approach the precision which we expect in the handling 
of steam or electricity, and notwithstanding the occasional sneers of the ig- 
norant, these silent forces embodied in plant life have yet a part to play in the 
regeneration of the race which by comparison will dwarf into insignificance 


SOME FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES. 37 


the services which steam and electricity have so far given. Even unconscious 
or half-conscious plant breeding has been one of the greatest forces in the 
elevation of the race. The chemist, the mechanic, have, so to speak, domesti- 
cated some of the forces of Nature, but the plant breeder is now learning to 
guide even the creative forces into new and useful channels. This knowledge 
is a most priceless legacy, making clear the way for some of the greatest bene- 
fits which man has ever received from any source by the study of Nature. 

A general knowledge of the relations and affinities of plants will not be a 
sufficient equipment for the successful plant breeder. He must be a skilful 
botanist and biologist, and, having a definite plan, must be able to correctly 
estimate the action of the two fundamental forces, inherent and external, which 
he would guide. 

The main object of crossing genera, species or varieties is to combine 
various individual tendencies, thus producing a state of perturbation or partial 
antagonism by which these tendencies are, in later generations, dissociated and 
recombined in new proportions, which gives the breeder a wider field for 
selection; but this opens a much more difficult one, the selection and fixing of 
the desired new types from the mass of heterogeneous tendencies produced, 
for by crossing bad traits as well as good are always brought forth; the 
results now secured by the breeder will be in proportion to the accuracy and 
intensity of selection and the length of time they are applied. By these means 
the best of fruits, grains, nuts and flowers are capable of still further improve- 
ment in ways which to the thoughtless often seem unnecessary, irrelevant or 
impossible. 

When we capture and domesticate the various plants the life forces are 
relieved from many of the hardships of an unprotected wild condition, and 
have more leisure, so to speak, or,.in other words, more surplus force, to be 
guided by the hand of man under the new environments into all the useful and 
beautiful new forms which are constantly appearing under cultivation, crossing 
and selection. Some plants are very much more pliable than others, as the 
breeder soon learns. Plants having numerous representatives in various parts 
of the earth generally possess this adaptability in a much higher degree than 
the monotypic species, for, having been subjected to great variations of soil, 
climate and other influences, their continued existence has been secured only by 
the inherited habits which adaptation demanded; while the monotypic species, 
not being able to fit themselves for their surroundings without a too radically 
expensive change, have only continued to exist under certain special conditions. 
Thus two important advantages are secured to the breeder who selects from 
the genera having numerous species—the advantage of naturally acquired plia- 
bility, and in the numerous species to work upon by combination for still fur- 
their variations. 

The plant breeder, before making combinations, should with great care 
select the individual plants which seem best adapted to his purpose, as by this 
course many years of experiment and much needless expense will be avoided. 
The difference in the individuals which the plant breeder has to work upon are 
sometimes extremely slight. The ordinary unpracticed person cannot by any 
possibility discover the exceedingly minute variations in form, size, color, 
fragrance, precocity and a thousand other characters which the practiced 


38 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 


breeder perceives by a lightning like glance. The work is not easy, requiring 
an exceedingly keen perception of minute differences, great practice and ex- 
treme care in treating the organisms operated upon; and even with all the 
naturally acquired variations added to those secured by crossing and numerous 
other means, the careful accumulation of slight individual differences through 
many generations is imperative, after which several generations are often but 
not always necessary to thoroughly “fix” the desired type for all practical 
purposes. 

The above applies to annuals, or those plants generally reproduced by 
seed. The breeder of plants which can be reproduced by division has great 
advantage, for any valuable indiyidual variation can be multiplied to any ex- 
tent desired without the extreme care necessary in fixing by linear breeding the 
one which must be reproduced by seed; but even in breeding perennials, the 
first deviations from the original form are often almost unappreciable to the 
perception, but by accumulating the most minute differences through many 
generations the deviation from the original form is often astounding. Thus 
by careful and intelligent breeding any peculiarity may be made permanent, and 
valid new species are at times produced by the art of the breeder, and there is 
no known limit to the improvement of plants by education, breeding and 
selection. : 

The plant breeder is an explorer into the infinite. He will have “no time 
to make money,” and his castle, the brain, must be clear and alert in throwing 
aside fossil ideas and rapidly replacing them with living, throbbing thought 
followed by action. Then, and not till then, shall he create marvels of beauty 
and value in new expressions of materialized force, for everything of value 
must be produced by the intelligent application of the forces of Nature which 
are always awaiting our commands. 

The vast possibilities of plant breedinig can facdig be estimated. It would 
not be difficult for one man to breed a new rye, wheat, barley, oats or rice 
which would produce one grain more to each head, or a corn which would 
produce an extra kernel to each ear, another potato to each plant, or an apple, 
plum, orange or nut to each tree. What would be the result? In five staples 
only in the United States alone the inexhaustible forces of Nature would pro- 
duce annually without effort and without cost: 

5,200,000 extra bushels of corn, 


15,000,000“ 4 “ wheat, 
20,000,000 “ a “ oats, 
1,500,000 “ - “ barley, 
21,000,000 “ ¥ “ potatoes. 


But these vast possibilities are not alone for one year, or for our own 
time or race, but are beneficent legacies for every maf, woman and child who 
shall ever inhabit the earth. And who can estimate the elevating and refining 
influnces and moral value of flowers, with all their graceful forms and bewitch- 
ing shades and combinations of color and exquisitely varied perfumes? These 
silent influences are unconsciously felt even by those who do not appreciate 
them consciously, and thus with better and still better fruits, nuts, grains and 
flowers will the earth be transformed, man’s thoughts turned from the base, 
destructive forces into the nobler productive ones which will lift him to higher 


SOME FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES. 39 


planes of action towards that happy day when man shall offer his brother man, 
not bullets and bayonets, but richer grains, better fruits and fairer flowers. 

Cultivation and care may help plants to do better work temporarily, but by 
breeding plants may be brought into existence which will do better work 
always in all places and for all time. Plants are to be produced which will 
perform their appointed work better, quicker and with the utmost precision. 

Science sees better grains, nuts, fruits and vegetables all in new forms, 
sizes, colors and flavors, with more nutrients and less waste, and with every 
injurious and poisonous quality eliminated, and with power to resist sun, 
wind, rain, frost and destructive fungus and insect pests; fruits without stones, 
seeds or spines; better fiber, coffee, tea, spice, rubber, oil, paper and timber 
trees, and sugar, starch, color and perfume plants. Every one of these, and 
ten thousand more, are within the reach of the most ordinary skill in plant 
breeding. 

Fellow plant breeders, this is our work. On us now rests one of the next 
great world movements; the guidance of the creative forces is in our hands. 

Man is slowly learning that he, too, may guide the same forces which have 
been through all the ages performing this beneficent work which he sees every- 
where, above, beneath and around him in the vast, teeming animal and plant 
life of the world. 

These lines were penned among the heights of the Sierras while resting on 
the original material from which this planet was made. Thousands of ages 
have passed, and it still remains unchanged. In it no fossils or any trace of 
past organic life are ever found, nor could any exist, for the world creative heat 
was too intense. Among these dizzy heights of rock, ice-cleft, glacier-plowed 
and water-worn, we stand face to face with the first and latest pages of world 
creation, for now we see also tender and beautiful flowers adding grace of form 
and color to the grisly walls, and far away down the slopes stand the giant 
trees, oldest of all living things, embracing all of human history, but even their 
lives are but as a watch tick since the stars first shone on these barren rocks 
before the evolutive forces had so gloriously transfigured the face of our 
planet home. 

The Chair: Anything that Luther Burbank says is entitled to most respectful 
consideration because of the fact that he is a man who has done so much in this fidid 


of work, the most successful worker in the field of hybridization of any in this country, 
and who has produced wonderful economic values from his labor. 


The following paper was read by W. A. Orton: 


ON THE BREEDING OF DISEASE RESISTANT 
VARIETIES. 


W. A. Orton, Assistant Pathologist, Bureau of Plant Industry, United States 
; Department of Agriculture. 


In speaking on this subject I desire to confine myself principally to the 
work now being carried on by the U. S. Department of Agriculture, and will, 
therefore, not attempt to give any historical statements or references to other 
work now being done on this problem. 

The experiments which are to be described were conducted in the South- 
ern States during the past four years, mainly on the group of diseases known 
as “wilt diseases,” or Fusarium diseases. The most important of these is the 
cotton wilt, and a brief description of it will apply very well to others of the 
same class affecting cowpeas, watermelons, cabbages, tomatoes and other 
plants, and will serve to make clear the conditions under which this plant 
breeding work is being done. 

The cotton wilt is caused by a fungus, Neocosmospora vasinfecta Erw. 
Sm., which gains entrance through the smaller roots from the soil and grows 
upward through the water vessels, which it fills with its mycelium, thereby 
shutting off the food supply and water supply of the plant. The symptoms 
are usually a sudden wilting of the plant, at almost any age from youth to 
maturity. When the progress of the disease is less rapid there is a slow dying 
of the leaves, which turn yellow between the veins and dry up at the margins 
before falling off. The woody portion of the stem is blackened; this latter 
character jurnishing the best means of distinguishing the disease. A micro- 
scopic examination of the stem in cross section shows the fungus filling the 
water vessels. The parasitism of this fungus has been proved by inocula- 
tion experiments with pure cultures. It gains entrance to the plant from the 
soil, where it appears to be capable of maintaining itself for an indefinite 
number of years in the absence of its host plant, either as a saprophyte or by 
means of resting spores. 

In the field it appears in scattered spots, which gradually enlarge and 
spread and remain permanently infected. The amount of injury done varies 
from little to the total destruction of each successive cotton crop planted on 
the land. (Pl. I.) The usual remedial measures have failed to give 
relief. Rotation of crops is not a remedy, and extensive experiments with 


42 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 


fertilizers designed to stimulate and strengthen the plant, and with fungicides 
applied to the soil to kill the fungus, were all without effect in checking the 
disease. 

Areas thus infected are found scattered through the Southern States, and 
the control of the disease is an important question, since many thousand 
acres are affected, and the aggregate loss amounts to hundreds of thousands 
of dollars annually. 

The possibility of using plant breeding as a means of controlling the 
disease had been kept in mind from the beginning of the investigations, and 
after other methods had failed experiments were undertaken, with the view 
of discovering or originating a variety resistant to the wilt. These have 
proved very successful in a number of instances, which will be mentioned 
briefly. 

1. The Rivers Cotton. 

It was early observed that not all plants were equally attacked by the 
wilt disease. Frequently one of two plants in the same hill died and the 
other lived, while in a field where nearly everything was killed some few 
plants would survive and show no trace of disease. The first attempt to 
produce a resistant strain by selection of such plants was made on Sea Island 
cotton about 1895 by Mr. E. L. Rivers, of James Island, S. C. This resulted 
in a failure, owing to the fact that the single plant selected proved to be a 
hybrid without desirable commercial qualities. In 1899 Mr. Rivers, who was 
then co-operating with the Department of Agriculture in its work on the 
disease, saved seed from another resistant stalk, which he planted in 1900 in 
a single row tnrough a field of his ordinary cotton. The land was badly in- 
fected with wilt, and nearly all the cotton in the field died, while not a plant 
in the select row was killed. This strain was planted on wilt infected land 
the next year, and preserved its resistance well. This season (1902) fifteen 
acres were planted on land which had formerly been abandoned for cotton 
because of its infection with the wilt fungus. With the exception of a few 
scattered plants, this variety resisted the disease completely (Pl. II.), 
while adjoining cotton of another kind, on land not so badly infected, was 
very much injured by wilt. These three successful tests of this selection 
indicate that it is as nearly resistant to wilt as any variety can be expected 
to be, and that the use of this or other resistant varieties will be the solution 
of the cotton wilt problem in the Sea Islands. 

In its other features, such as length, fineness and uniformity of staple, it 
is above the average. . It yields as much or more per acre than the ordinary 
non-resistant kinds, thus showing that in securing resistance to disease other 
desirable qualities have not been sacrificed. Its cultivation will be continued 
and seed will be distributed by the Department of Agriculture for the relief 
of the Sea Island cotton planters in Georgia and Florida. 

2. Other Resistant Selections. 

In connection with the efforts of the Department of Agriculture to pro- 
duce wilt resistant varieties of cotton for distribution to the farmers in ‘the 
affected districts, a number of other selections have been made, which have 
proved very resistant to wilt. They have now been grown for two years on. 
wilt infected land, where they have remained healthy, while ordinary cotton 


BREEDING RESISTANT VARIETIES. 


‘aseosiq] IMA 24} Aq padtosjsaq sjur[q 


te AyjteaN 


‘PIA YoHOD purysy eag—] Id 


44 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. — 


was greatly injured. Some of them planted beside the Rivers cotton during 
the present season have proved to be equally as resistant to wilt as that 
variety. These strains of Sea Island cotton were developed in practically the 
same way as the Rivers cotton—by selecting as parent stalks very vigorous 
and healthy plants found in the worst infected fields. The seed from each 
of these was picked separately and planted the next year on land known to 
be thoroughly infected with wilt. Under such conditions their resistance was 
put to a severe test. Those that failed to withstand the disease were dis- 
carded at once, and others were thrown out because they were deficient in 
yield or in length or quality of staple. It was found that the progeny of 
most of the selected plants were all resistant in tne second generation, and 
only such were preserved. Where many of the individuals grown from one 
parent plant were affected the whole selection was discarded as lacking the 
quality of prepotency, or transmitting power. In the third generation the 
quality of resistance was still retained, with only a few reverting individuals 
showing disease. They were destroyed, and it is believed that with proper 
care in selection these strains can be kept resistant indefinitely. 

The development of strains of Sea Island cotton resistant to wilt is so 
easy that it can readily be done by the planters themselves. In fact, several 
of the more progressive Sea Island planters are already doing this, with en- 
couraging results, and land once abandoned because of the wilt disease is 
now being taken under cultivation again. 


3. The Sensation Cotton. 

An interesting instance of the origination of a wilt resistant variety is 
found in the history of the Sensation, a local strain of Sea Island cotton 
grown on Edisto Island, S. C., by Messrs. M. M. and E. M. Seabrook. The 
cotton planters of this section have been accustomed for many years to keep 
up the quality of their product by a rigid system of selection, the funda- 
mental principle being the annual selection of a single superior plant, which 
becomes the parent of the strain.* 

The above mentioned strain was originally selected for its length and 
fineness of staple, without reference to its wilt resistance, which was not ob- 
served until about the fifth generation, when it was planted in a field where 
some spots were known to be infected with wilt. This cotton made a healthy 
growth on these wilt infected areas, and thus attracted the notice of the 
growers. The writer made an examination of the field at this time and found 
evidence of the presence of the fungus in the soil in the occurrence of tufted 
roots on some of the resistant plants.** Later and more extended trials of 
the Sensation cotton have verified these observations and demonstrated the 
important fact that it is thoroughly resistant to wilt. The explanation of this 
is not difficult to find. It will be remembered that, as previously stated, there 
are in almost every field some plants that resist infection by the wilt fungus. 
The parent plant of this variety undoubtedly possessed this quality, though 
the field in which it grew was not infected by the wilt fungus, and all its 
descendants have inherited its wilt resistance. It is encouraging to note that 


*For a full account of this method of selection see Webber, Yearbook U. S. Dept. 
of Agric., 1898, p. 358. 


**See Bul. No. 27, Div. Veg. Phys. & Fath. U. S. Dept. of Agric., p. 8. 


BREEDING RESISTANT VARIETIES. 


Plate I. 


same Plantation as 


on 


Plate II.—River’s. Resistant Cotton on Wilt-infected Land, 


46 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 


this year, in the seventh generation from the parent plant, the wilt resistance 
is as marked as when first observed. If the other strains now being de- 
veloped prove as lasting as this one their value will be very great. There 
seems to be no reason why we should not find them so. 

4. Wilt Resistant Upland Selections. 

So far our experiments have dealt with Sea Island cotton. The wilt 
disease is, however, even more destructive to the Upland varieties, Gossypium 
herbaceum, and in 1900 an effort was made to find a resistant Upland cotton. 
The first step was to plant on wilt infected land all the different varieties 
obtainable, in order to compare their resistance, and provide a place where 
selections could be made. The resuit of this experiment was to show that 
Egyptian cotton, Gossypium Barbadense, was more resistant than our Upland 
cotton. There was, on the whole, little difference in resistance between the 
common Upland sorts, with the exception of Jackson’s Limbless, which sur- 
passed all the others, though it was by no means entirely resistant. Ex- 
pressed numerically, on a scale of 1,000, the average coefficient of resistance 
was 534 for the Egyptian varieties, 453 for Jackson and 08 for the other 
Upland kinds. 

There were occasionally resistant plants in this field, and numerous se- 
lections of such resistant individuals were made from it, but, unfortunately, 
nearly all of them except the Jackson were destroyed the next year by pro- 
longed wet weather. 

It was not fully demonstrated that resistant Upland strains could be pro- 
duced by selection until this year (1902), when results were obtained that 
were nearly as striking as those previously had with Sea Island cotton. These 
experiments were carried on at Troy, Alabama, on land thoroughly infected 
with wilt. The seed planted had been selected the previous fall from re- 
sistant plants in badly diseased fields. Some non-resistant varieties were 
planted beside them for comparison, and the results thus made more striking. 
In a number of instances single rows planted with seed from selected plants 
were almost free from disease, while the adjoining rows were badly attacked 
or almost destroyed (Pl. III.). The Jackson selections of the third gen- 
eration were still resistant here, but a number of one-year selections were 
equally as good. These strains will be carried on and tested more thoroughly, 
after which the best of them will be distributed to the farmers for general 
cultivation. 

The Cowpea Wilt. 

This disease is caused by the fungus Neocosmospora vasinfecta var. 
tracheiphila Erw. Sm., and is similar to the cotton wilt in nature, but is 
not of such great economic importance. The cowpea (Vigna sinensis) is, 
however, the most valuable leguminous forage, plant in the South, and any 
factor like this disease which hinders or restricts its use in crop rotations as 
a soil renovator must be considered serious. It is mentioned here merely to 
call attention to another striking instance of varietal resistance to disease. In 
this case the resistant form was not developed by selection, as were the wilt 
resistant cottons previously described, but was found already in cultivation, 
though its disease resistant qualities had not been specifically pointed out. 

This cowpea, known as the Iron, has been tested in the experiments of 


47 


atitls 


4 


BREEDING RESISTANT VARII 


juRisisoel-uoON ‘Jo <4} 


4y311 943 Je uoWoD purydy) 
ye priqdhyyT purldpQ-uendssy “ely ‘Kory, ‘U0}OD JWe}sisor-FIM— TIT 38d 


48 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 


the Department of Agriculture in comparison with over forty other varieties, 
and during the past two years has been the only kind to withstand the wilt 
fungus. In other varieties the loss on the infected land has been from two- 
thirds to the whole of the crop, while in the adjoining rows of Iron it was 
difficult to find a single affected plant. (Pl. IV.). Other trials of the 
variety in a number of places where common cowpeas had failed to succeed 
resulted in a satisfactory crop. The experience of farmers who have grown 
this cowpea on a larger scale confirms our observations. In addition to its 
resistance to the wilt fungus it withstands drouth remarkably well, and holds 
its leaves late in the season, when other varieties have become defoliated, 
showing in these and other respects its unusual hardiness. 

The most noteworthy quality of the Iron cowpea, however, is its re- 
sistance to the root-knot worm, or nematode (Heterodcra radicicola). This 
was brought out by the experiments of the Department of Agriculture a 
year ago,* and another year’s work has given similar results on a somewhat 
larger scale. The Iron pea was planted& beside a number of other varieties on 
land infested with nematodes, and careful comparisons made by examination 
of the roots of each lot. The Iron was uniformly free from nematode attacks 
and remained green and healthy till late in the season. All other kinds were 
much diseased and died before maturing much seed. Their roots were much 
knotted and deformed by the nematode galls, while the roots of Iron were 
uniformly smooth and clean. 

This attribute of the Iron cowpea, if maintained in other localities and 
through later years, will make it of very great value as a rotation crop 
throughout the wide areas in the Southern States where nematodes are 
prevalent. In these sections the use of the common cowpeas is often injuri- 
ous because of their extreme susceptibility to root-knot, since a crop of them 
will so greatly increase the number of the parasites in the soil that succeeding 
cotton or other crops will be injured more severely. No other leguminous 
crop equals the cowpea as a soil renovator in the Southern States, and if 
this variety can be safely used on nematode infested land it will have a wide 
range of usefulness. 

Another point of interest to us as plant breeders in connection with the 
resistance of this variety to nematode attacks lies in the encouragement it 
gives us in our efforts to produce nematode resistant strains of other plants. 
If such forms of peaches, cotton, tomatoes and other vegetables canbe pro- 
duced they will be extremely valuable, not only in America, but also in other 
countries where nematodes cause injury. 


The Watermelon Wilt. 


This disease, caused by the fungus Neocosmospora vasinfecta var. nivea 
Erw. Sm., is similar in nature to the two preceding, but is more widespread 
in our southern and central States. Its action is also more rapid and the 
destruction it causes more complete. In sections where it is prevalent seven 
to ten years must elapse after land has been planted to watermelons before 
the same crop can with safety be put there again. We have had some diffi- 


*Webber, H. J., and Orton, W. A.—Some Diseases of the Cowpea, Bul. 17, pp. 
23-38. Bureau of Plant Industry, U. S. Dept. of Agric., Washington, D. C., 1902. 


49 


S. 


TIE 


RESISTANT VARIE 


7 


BREEDING 


‘yOUNJOOY pue FIA\ 0} 199}e] BY} JO JoURIsSISOI 
SUIMOYS ‘JYS:1 94} Je vadMoD) uo1yT 


‘We] 2y} ye vadMoD [nz19puoA\ “Pyarqy vadmog [eyuourssdxy— AT eI 


50 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 


culty in obtaining wilt resistant selections of the watermelon, because re- 
sistant individuals are less numerous; but ‘several strains are now being 
grown which promise to retain this quality. Selections were made this year 
from resistant vines which remained healthy on land where all melons had 
been killed for four years previous. Our hopes are further stimulated by 
the fact that the citron and an African melon, both forms of Citrullus vul- 
garis, are resistant to wilt. Hybrids between these and our better watermelons 
have been made, and they promise to be wilt resistant, though it is not yet 
known whether an edible product can be obtained. This work is now being 
continued. 
Discussion of Methods and Results. 

The question of the reason for the marked resistance to infection by 
wilt fungi noted in individual plants of cotton, cowpeas and watermelons has 
not been satisfactorily answered. Our own observations lead us to believe 
that it is not due to any mechanical protection afforded by thicker cell walls 
or in similar ways, but that it probably is due to some physiological reaction 
within the plant, possibly connected with the presence or absence of certain 
enzymes. This interesting problem has not yet been fully worked out. It is 
certain that resistance to one disease does not necessarily imply any immunity 
against others. One of the wilt resistant cottons, for instance, is very much 
affected by the angular leaf spot. 

The important points that concern the plant breeder are that individual 
plants do occur which resist these wilt diseases, and that their descendants 
inherit this resistance. The determination of the proper methods to pursue 
in utilizing these variations and fixing them into stable varieties has been the 
object of some of our investigations. The final conclusions can hardly be 
drawn as yet. They will probably be found to confirm principles already 
known to plant breeders. 


Importance of the Individual. 


The most important point that has been brought out is that in seeking a 
disease resistant variety the attention must be directed to the selection of re- 
sistant individuals to use as the parents of a new strain, rather than to the 
discovery of the desired characters in a variety already existing. There is no 
question, of course, that varieties differ in their susceptibility to disease, and 
a thorough test of a large number of varieties in a location where they will 
be exposed to the disease against which resistance is desired would be the 
first step in a system of plant breeding.. But if even the best variety is not 
entirely resistant, the selection from it of individual plants that have the de- 
sired character may lead to the production of a resistant strain. 

Furthermore, it is very desirable to save the seed from each plant sep- 
arately, tnat is, to take as the basis of each selection a single exceptional in- 
dividual, rather than to mix the seeds of a number of good plants. The rea- 
sons for this are, first, that it insures greater uniformity than can be had 
from seed of mixed parentage, which is especially desirable in breeding cot- 
ton; and second, that if any selection lacks prepotency or shows other un- 
desirable characters, it can be wholly discarded in the second generation, 
while in mixed lots this could not be done; third, opportunity may be had 
for exact studies on heredity. If the aim is to produce a select variety too 


BREEDING RESISTANT VARIETIES. 51 


much emphasis cannot be laid on the desirability of concentrating one’s 
energy on the careful comparison and selection of a few. mother plants, 
which are to be kept separate, rather than on the “rogueing” of large fields. 


The Factor of Cross-Pollination, 

When the selection of wilt resistant strains of cotton was first undertaken 
considerable importance was attached to the close fertilization of the flowers 
on the selected plant, since it would seem that if they received pollen from 
adjoining non-resistant plants the seed produced would be less resistant. Our 
field experiments have not supported this view, however, and at present little 
importance is attached to the covering of selected plants to protect them from 
foreign pollen, though as a precautionary measure the plants are isolated as 
much as possible, in order to reduce the amount of cross-pollination. In 
our experiments a large number of flowers were covered with bags and al- 
lowed to fertilize themselves. The seed thus obtained was planted on wilt 
infected land besides some from open fertilized bolls. The results showed 
no advantage from self-pollination either in uniformity of type or resistance 
to disease. The plants produced from uncovered flowers were, if anything, 
more vigorous than the others. It should be said in this connection that it 
1s probable that a considerable percentage of cotton blossoms in the open 
field are normally close fertilized. 


Fixing the Type. 

It was thought at the beginning of the work that the selection for re- 
sistance would have to be continued for two or three generations in order 
to fix the type. Experience has shown, however, that with cotton our re- 
sistant types are fully fixed from the beginning. In our present work, if the 
offspring of any selected plant fail to show this uniform resistance, they are 
all discarded. Such cases are few, and may be due to an error in selecting as 
resistant a plant never exposed to infection, or the plants may have lacked 
prepotency. ‘ 

Effect of Fertilization. 

In our work on the wilt diseases it has been found important to have the 
land where the selections are to be made well fertilized, particularly with 
stable manure or other organic substances. The resistant plants attain a 
better: development under such circumstances, and it is easier to distinguish 
between resistant and partially diseased plants. 


Selection vs. Hybridization. 


In breeding wilt resistant varieties of cotton it has been found possible 
to attain the end desired by selection alone, without having recourse to 
hybridization. Hybrids have been made in connection with the work, particu- 
larly with Egyptian cotton, and have proved very resistant (PI. III.), 
but the difficulty of securing a fixed type of commercial value is so great 
that we have not preserved them, since selections from well fixed varieties 
answered the purpose better. With watermelons the same objection to 
hybridization holds with greater force on account of the difficulty usually 
experienced in fixing hybrid cucurbits. In working with other crops and 
other diseases it may be desirable to use hybrids, but under our conditions 


4. 


52 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 


it seems to be possible to obtain by selection alone disease resistant strains 
of any quality desired, whether fine or coarse, late or early. 


Selection for Resistance to Other Diseases. 


This comparatively unworked field in plant breeding offers great rewards 
to coming investigators. There is every reason to think that strains of plants 
can be developed which will resist many of our common and destructive dis- 
eases. Many instances could be cited where the results of such work appear 
promising. The production of disease resistant fruits, nuts and potatoes may 
be looked for; but it should be remembered that results obtained with varie- 
ties propagated by seed, like cotton, may not be duplicated with equal ease 
in varieties propagated by grafting or buds. - 


W. M. Hays: Is cotton generally open to cross fertilization? 

W. A. Orton: That is an uncertain point. Cotton fertilizes itself freely; that is, 
flowers covered with a bag before opening are almost certain to set seed, and yet they 
are freely visited by insects, and there is no question that abundant cross fertilization 
takes place. But our results have been contradictory. Where different varieties have 
been planted beside each other there has apparently been little crossing in some cases, 
but in others a great deal. I think that cotton as a rule is not extensively crossed by 
insects in the field. : 

W. M. Hays: Have you used hybrids in large numbers; in anything like as large 
numbers as your standard stocks? 

W. A. Orton: Hardly; hybrid cottons are very difficult to handle on account ot 
extreime variation. 

The Chair: Have there been any experiments toward getting a variety of musk- 
melon or cantaloupe resistant to wilt disease? That is a subject that appeals to all of us. 

W. A. Orton: The wilt of the muskmelon is due in the North usually to a form 
of black rot. In the South there is a wilt of the cantaloupe which is due to a disease 
very like the watermelon wilt, and I am working on that. So far as I know, no experi- 
ments have been made on the Northern disease. 

W. M. Hays: I would like to ask the speaker if he knows of what this resistant 
quality consists. ; 

W. A. Orton: The Department has just found that there are no anatomical feat- 
ures that would explain the difference; and I believe the resistance is due to physiological 
or chemical differences in the plant. The fungus seems to be unable to enter the roots, 
or if it does obtain an entrance to the smaller roots it is unable to penetrate the water 
passages, and I believe, although I have no definite proof of it, that the reason for the 
difference is an enzyme of the plant. 

D. G. Fairchild: 1n 1899 I visited the experiment stations in Svalof, Sweeden, and 
Dr. Nilsson called my attention to a patch of vetch which had been selected from a 
single resistant plant which has resisted the attacks of Peronospora. The whole field 
had been killed by this disease with the exception of this one plant. They had selected 
it and raised plants from it and produced as beautiful a patch of vetch as I have ever 
seen. My attention was recalled to this by Dr. Orton’s remark that he believed there 
was no limit to the possibilities of selection in plants for resistance to disease. 

H. H. Groff: Not long ago articles went the rounds of the horticultural press which 
gave the impression that since all seed was produced free from disease, we might sow 
with the expectation of securing strong and vigorous plants from the seed of diseased 
parents. This, however, proves most conclusively, I think, that that must be an error. 
Cotton is produced from seeds, is it not, Professor Orton? 

W. A. Orton: Well, in the case of these diseases, seed saved from diseased plants 
is certain to become diseased if grown in infected soil. In a different kind of soil not 
affected by this fungus, it is likely to grow and remain healthy, although, perhaps, not 
as vigorous, 

S. Fraser: Is it necessary to grow the crop on diseased land in order to secure 
immunity? 


BREEDING RESISTANT VARIETIES. 53 


W. A. Orton: It is necessary to grow crops on infected land in order to make 
selections. 

S. Fraser: To maintain the immunity? W. A. Orton: I don’t think so. 

S. Fraser: If grown on other free land for a series of years will it then be resistant? 

W. A. Orton: Except in this way, that if planted on infected land the non-re- 
sistant plants can be weeded out, while if grown on non-infected land they would not 
be noticed. 

S. Fraser: Could you mention any variety of potatoes that is resistant? 

W. A. Orton: I could not just now. I have that information in my notes, but 
I don’t recall any variety resistant to ground rot. 

The Chair: The subject treated by Professor Orton is one of very great economic 
importance, and we can only hope that the experiments will go on and very effective 
results be obtained. I am sure that there are opportunities in many fields for experi- 
mentation in this line of selection, and it is something that we can almost any of us 
do and do it with a hope, after hearing this paper, of satisfactory result. 


The following paper was read by W. M. Hays: 


BREEDING FOR INTRINSIC QUALITIES. 
W. M. Hays, Agriculturist, State Experiment Station, St. Anthony Park, Minn. 


The aggregate of wealth annually produced in America by means ot 
domestic plants and animals is valued at several billion dollars. A liberal 
allowance for fields and flocks in the hands of men who will not seek or 
even receive blood of improved plants and animals will easily leave annual 
products worth two billion dollars, which may be brought under the breeder’s 
influence. Burbank and other breeders of plants, and of animals, have 
abundantly proved that it is practicable by breeding alone to increase values 
ten per cent. Ten per cent of two billion dollars is two hundred million dol- 
lars. No doubt, breeding operations, as now developed, will increase this 
annual product two per cent in twenty years, or forty million dollars an- 
nually. It is fair to believe that an additional increase of eight per eent, or 
one hundred and sixty millions additional annual increase, may be produced 
by devising and extensively using much better scientific methods of breeding. 
One per cent of the total increase should be a sufficient annual expenditure to 
produce the magnificent increase which seems in reach, if the work is prop- 
erly carried out. The soil is a vast mine, and our plants and animals are 
parts of our mining machinery. If by spending one per cent of the value of 
the output on these machines we can increase the output ten per cent, we are 
“penny wise and pound foolish” not to do so. 

This problem is distributed from the gentle violet to King Corn, and 
from the brilliant goldfish to the queenly cow, and includes many micro- 
scopic organizations. On the side of wealth production this problem lies 
mainly in a score of staple crops, and in the four great species of domestic 
animals. But in addition there are vast financial interests in species of 
fruits and flowers and in the minor species of economic animals, including 
some fishes, oysters; also economic insects, bacteria, etc. The interest does 
not stop with the financial, but there are ethical and scientific interests of 
vast import. Improved plants and animals, and the interest which is con- 
nected with their breeding and production, make for a better civilization. 

Pedigrees, distinguishing marks, performance records and the attractive 
presence of the living product of the breeder’s art have an inspiring interest 
which is uplifting. People who have highly bred plants and animals farm ~ 
better, thrive better, enjoy life better and live better. Breeders and growers of 
improved plants and animals have a delightful source of zest, unfelt by ordi- 
nary mortals. Humanity relishes touch with improvement. The hybridizer is a 


56 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 


creator of values, and his every improved product, besides serving in its 
own generation, becomes a new foundation for an added story to the 
superstructure of economic or artistic production. 

Man’s influence on plants and animals was Darwin’s best clue to the 
science of heredity. Hereafter scientific breeding promises to be one of our 
best means for studying the nature of man, as well as of plants and animals. 
Man, aided by social organization, is making tremendous strides in self- 
development. The rapid strides found possible in improving species of 
plants and animals begin to give hope that race development may become 
feasible. The subject of breeding is apparently approaching a vastness, a 
profundity and a widespread interest comparable with its possibilities. 

As minds flock about a new thought in invention, literature or art, and 
perfect it, so scientists have long hovered, spellbound, about Darwin’s theory 
of natural evolution. That man can turn this idea to immense account has 
heretofore received only a moiety of its due. Though the strenuous contest 
which his theories precipitated caused him to lay the stress on the historical 
rather than on the future economic phase of his brilliant work, as relates to 
animals and plants, Darwin saw both facts as few of his followers have 
appreciated. But there is developing a deeper appreciation of his work in 
relation to the possible evolution of domesticated species. Biologists, as well 
as practical breeders, are becoming interested in the possibilities of artificial 
evolution, carried out scientifically and on a scale commensurate with its 
necessities and importance. 

The most important business principle brought out during recent years 
by Burbank and others is that by carefully growing and testing very large 
numbers of plants improvements may be made which will far more than 
pay the cost. Galton showed that there is only one remarkable man in sev- 
eral thousands. Animal breeders have come to realize that there is only one 
remarkably prepotent and effective sire in many; e. g., Messenger, the father 
of trotters, and Stoke Pogis, sire of a family of superior Jersey cows. Gideon, 
Patton and other apple breeders find only one superior apple among very 
many seedlings. Burbank throws away piles of berry vines as large as straw 
stacks in the effort to find a few superior individual mother plants. 

The old time proposition that like begets like, that there are variations 
in some individuals, with occasional cases of atavism, is neither distinct nor 
definite as a rule of business action. Breed from the best is a good rule, but 
its meaning is comparatively unimportant in variety and breed formation, un- 
less changed to read: Breed from the very best from among very large 
numbers. To utilize large numbers in an effort to secure the one or several 
best as progenitors of a new race, system must be used in growing, measur- 
ing and testing. Statistical methods, instruments of precision, and machinery, 
also business and public organization, must be devised and utilized extensively, 
especially with some of the most important wealth producing species. 

Selection requires nearly the whole labor and expense, in most cases 
hybridizing only requiring a fraction of one per cent of the work of the 
improver of plants and animals. Plants may be divided roughly as to methods 
of breeding into three classes, according to their manner of propagation. The 


2 


BREEDING FOR INTRINSIC QUALITY. © 57 


apple will serve as an example of the first class, where we reproduce the 
‘mother plant asexually, as by buds or cuttings, there being only bud variation 
and no further adulteration through fertilization. Wheat, which is self-pol- 
lenated, but which we reproduce by sexually produced seeds, will serve to 
illustrate the second method of breeding. Corn, which is accustomed to the 
freest and widest cross-pollenation, will serve to illustrate the third, and by 
far the most difficult general method of breeding. I use the term “breeding” 
in its general or widest sense, so as to include all operations which assist 
in securing blood lines better adapted to the desired purpose. 

The first operation is securing the best foundation stocks, whether util- 
izing varieties at hand known to be superior, or by accession from the out- 
side, securing others and testing them beside known standard sorts. We 
should always place much effort on securing the best possible start. Of the 
possible final improvements more tnan half is ofttimes secured by a wise 
choice of foundation stocks. Not infrequently ultimate failure is met because 
of a hasty and ill advised start. Breeders are in competition, and no one 
should allow his competitors to start with superior foundation stock and he 
with a handicap. This selection of original varieties should be from among 
as large numbers as practicable, and with a broad knowledge of the correlated 
qualities required to make up the largest unit of economic and artistic values 
in the desired line. As the methods of selecting are here much the same as 
selecting among newly formed varieties, details will be passed over. 

In making hybrid varieties the mere manipulations of emasculating and 
cross-pollenating, though sometimes tedious, are usually exceedingly simple, 
and in many cases may best be left to natural agencies. The choice of varie- 
ties to mate, however, presents unusual difficulties. In some cases, e. g., Bur- 
bank’s plums, experience has proven that the union of certain blood lines 
often results in an unusual proportion of superior progeny; and in animal 
breeding certain out-crosses have so often proved superior that they have 
gained popularity. But for the most part crosses must be made between 
those varieties which most nearly approach the desired ideal, and whica will 
supplement each other; and then the chances must be taken of securing occa- 
sionally superior parent plants and effective blood lines. True, in some cases, 
we can gradually introduce a small proportion of the attenuated blood of 
some form strong in a needed characteristic, but undesirable in others. Thus 
the thirty-second part of the blood of a hardy native crab might be utilized 
to make a hardier form of apple for the far Northwest. Since hybrids may 
combine their innumerable characteristics in such a multitude of forms it is 
not strange that we find it necessary to seek from among tens and hundreds 
of thousands that one individual or small group of plants which shall possess 
the desired correlation of qualities. If all the words of a dictionary were 
on slips of paper and placed indiscriminately in a pile, we could be certain of 
securing a given word only by looking over the whole pile. The combina- 
tions possible in hybrid individuals between two species or varieties are 
vastly more numerous than the number of words it is possible to make by 
combining the twenty-six letters of our alphabet; and where the blood of 
three or more species is intermingled the complexity is made still greater. 
We must expect to select from among large numbers. 


58 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 


Varieties Multiplied Asexually. 


In species like the apple the opportunities of improvement by selection 
within the variety, without seed reproduction, are relatively slight, because 
confined to bud selection; though even in buds the natural impulses of the 
mixed blood, aided by environment, cause useful and valuable variations, ap- 
parently differing in their values only in degree from variations arising di- 
rectly from seed reproduction. Seeds which are hybrids between known 
varieties should generally be used where practicable. Here the selection is 
carried out by simply growing immense numbers, digging out all unpromising 
trees, fruiting the promising ones, and by making root or top and bud grafts, 
thus extensively testing the very few best, and finally propagating only those 
which prove so superior as to warrant their commercial use. If better 
methods cannot be devised for securing to originators remuneration for their 
work, the breeding of this class of crops should be taken in hand extensively 
at public expense. In Minnesota something is being accomplished by the State 
Horticultural Society. It has offered a premium of $1,000.00 for a choice 
apple, with certain prescribed qualities. But that sum can pay for only one 
variety, and even that liberal premium will not give enough stimulus of apple ~ 
breeding. The public cannot afford to longer refrain from investing much 
larger sums’ in apple breeding. 


Varieties Multiplied by Self-Pollenation. 


Any reasonable expense may properly be used in the breeding of our 
great staple crops, where hundreds of millions of dollars hang on the breed- 
ing values of a comparatively small number of superior plants. Theory dic- 
tates and practical experience has proven that the employment of a large 
number of plants is an economical necessity in breeding such crops as wheat, 
oats, barley, etc. The following brief statement of a plan for breeding wheat 
is essentially that in operation at the Minnesota Experiment Station, but is 
adapted to the conditions of starting anew in a State experiment station: 

A large number of chosen varieties, a hundred or more, are secured 
from regions with conditions most like that for which the varieties are de- 
sired. In a few years these are reduced to the ten, more or less, which are 
productive of the largest value per acre. The breeding may be begun before 
all these varieties have been given field trials, if one or more varieties are 
already at hand which are useful, that they may be made more useful to the 
State at the earliest moment. 

For convenience of statement, after testing three to five years, we will 
assume to choose five superior varieties for foundation breeding stocks. At 
every point where selection is practicable the best should be chosen. From 
field plots of each of the five varieties superior spikes are chosen. These are 
shelled and 10,000, more or less, superior kernels are selected from each 
variety. Each of these is planted by itself in a bed with its fellows in 
such manner that each plant may have the same opportunity as each other 
plant. Beds four by forty-two feet, with two-foot alleys between the sides 
and six-foot alleys between the blocks, at the ends of the plots, are made 
level and the seed bed made fine and of very even texture. To insure good 
mechanical conditions and an abundance of moisture in the spring, also free- 


BREEDING FOR INTRINSIC QUALITY. 59 


dom from insects, the land for the field crop nursery is summer fallowed the 
previous year, where practicable to do so. An effective machine has been 
devised for this planting. It rests on planks lying in the alleys on either side 
of the bed. One man sits on the machine and drops into each of fourteen 
cups one or two seeds. He then throws the frame carrying the cups over and 
the seeds fall down fourteen tubes, each of which extends into the soil-to a 
uniform depth of two to three inches. A second man with a lever throws the 
machine forward four inches, and as the seeding tubes are four inches apart 
the hills are in squares, each plant having sixteen square inches of soil room. 
Before the plants have begun to stool the beds are carefully gone over, and 
only one plant is left in a hill. 

When ripe the poorer plants are cut off with sheep shears, leaving about 
500 of those of each variety, or 2,500 in all, which appear to be the heaviest 
yielders. The bunch of several spikes of each of these plants is put into a 
separate packet, properly numbered, and taken to the laboratory and weighed 
in the chaff. One hundred of each variety, 500 plants in all, which weigh 
heavy, are shelled and inspected as to quality. Two hundred or more of 
those yielding the highest value per plant are chosen, and the second year 
100 of the best seeds are planted from each of the 200 mother plants. Two 
border rows are planted about each plot, and these are removed before har- 
vest. At harvest time ten superior spikes are saved from as many superior 
plants in each plot, and the seeds from these are saved to plant a similar 
plot the third year from each stock or variety from the 200 mother plants, 
respectively. There are usually a few blank hills, and it is necessary to 
count the plants as harvested. Shears with automatic counting attachment 
are here needed to facilitate the work and to make the counting more accu- 
rate. The grain is tied into a bundle, the heads of which are wrapped in 
muslin to prevent loss from sparrows, etc., and the bundles are tied to stakes 
to dry. The bundles are threshed in especially arranged machinery, which 
does not lose nor mix the grain. After adding the weights of the bulk grain 
and that shelled from the ten spikes chosen for seed the total is divided by 
the number of plants, thus giving the yield in grains per plant of the progeny 
of the 200 mother plants. By using the seeds from the ten spikes a similar 
test is made the third year, and in like manner a test is sometimes made the 
fourth year.. The averages between the yields of the average plants for the 
two or three years give pretty good indexes to the power of the blood of 
each of the mother plants to produce heavy yielding progeny under condi- 
tions nearly like those met by the wheat plants in the fields. In other words, 
we thus secure a good measure of the “projected efficiency,” or breeding 
power, of each of the 200 mother plants. The seeds of each of the fifty best 
of the 200 stocks may now be separately planted in field plots, making fifty 
varieties; or, five, more or less, of the plants very similar in appearance may 
- be mixed together, thus greatly reducing the number of varieties. These are 
grown the fifth year in increase plots, so as to secure sufficient seeds for 
plots of one-tenth or one-twentieth of an acre in area. The sixth, seventh 
and eighth years the fifty varieties are grown beside their parent varieties and 
other standard kinds in field test plots. Sufficient superior stocks are hand- 
picked out of each plot to furnish seed for planting the plot the next year, 


60 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 


thus keeping the plot pure from mechanical mixture and gaining slightly on 
the selection toward larger yield. During these three years tests are made 
not only of yield and of quality, as determined by inspection, but milling 
tests are also made of the quality of the flour from each variety. At the end 
of this period averages are made of the trials for the three years, and each 
wheat is studied as to its relative value—producing power per acre. Possibly 
five out of the fifty are superior to the remainder. These are furnished to 
experiment stations in surrounding States, which are in a co-operative or- 
ganization, that they may give the new sorts further trial for the use of the 
originating station, and also for their own use. If, after one or two years’ 
trials at several stations, or after further trial at the originating station, one 
of these wheats shows a value per acre greater than any other wheat grown, 
it is rapidly multiplied. Instead of distributing it free, the pedigree is placed 
behind this new variety, and it is sold at a price much above the current 
prices of ordinary seed wheat, but much below its real value. It is sold to 
seedsmen, seed growers and farmers, and so distributed throughout the State 
that all who will make a specialty of growing superior seeds for sale may 
soon have a chance to grow it. This has proven a very effective way of 
widely distributing a variety. Even sorts bred only for superior yield per 
acre, with no ordinary varietal distinguishing marks, are thus widely dis- 
tributed. 

Distinguishing marks are very useful, but, often to combine breeding for 
distinguishing marks with breeding for intrinsic qualities has defeated the 
whole economic purposes, e. g., breeding clover at the Minnesota Station for 
the first ten years of effort in that direction helped to lead to temporary 
failure. We tried to breed hardy clover with flowers of lighter color. 

This method of breeding wheat costs money. “The proof of the pudding 
is in the eating,’ however, and one variety thus originated and distributed, 
Minn. No. 163, has already paid the bill for breeding this and other species of 
field crops by the Minnesota Station. The farmers’ reports show that this 
variety yields a dollar per acre more than the wheats it is supplanting. We 
estimate that in 1902 there was grown in Minnesota 60,000 acres of this 
variety; also 20,000 acres in North Dakota. ‘hat this has resulted from 
200 bushels distributed in 1899, 100 in 1900 and 200 in Igor seems at first 
remarkable. This emphasizes the fact that even a variety not differing in 
appearance from a kind commonly grown in the State may be widely dis- 
tributed by putting behind it a statistical pedigree and by careful work in 
breeding and distributing which will gain the confidence of the growers. 

Open-pollenated plants, also animals, must be bred in many ways in a 
manner radically different than bacteria, or apples, or than wheat or oats, 
where adulteration by mixing is not continued. Open-pollenated species and 
animals are accustomed to more or less cross-breeding, and in many cases a 
. mixture of blood is necessary to their reproductive vigor. Here we have the’ 
more complex problem of securing mixtures of blood lines which have a high 
“projected efficiency.” It is harder here to fix types, to attain a settled char- 
acter of blood lines—which are constantly tending to reorganize into new 
combinations of characters—so as to have a strong and constant efficiency in 
the production of large values along given desired lines. Besides, we cannot 


BREEDING FOR INTRINSIC QUALITY. 61 


breed a large number of open-pollenated varieties in one nursery, nor on one 
farm, unless it be a very large one. In corn, for example, the importance of 
great care in securing a superior foundation stock is even more important 
than in wheat, because the number which may be kept under trial is limited 
to so few. After having chosen the variety, the very choicest plants should 
be chosen from among very large numbers, as from large fields. These should 
be most carefully tested as to yield of grain and general character of plant, 
time required to mature, etc. In some cases the composition of the kernels 
may be determined. One hundred or more superior plants are chosen, and 
a centgener row planted from each. Twenty or more of the best yielding 
rows with good plants are chosen, and from among the plants in each of 
these rows ten or more of the best plants are chosen and tested. Tne best 
of these are used for planting thirty to a hundred centgener rows the third 
season. Care is taken to not reduce the number of original blood lines to 
below, say, five, or even ten. Soon the selecting should begin to respect cer- 
tain types, that the variety may be reduced to a more popular appearance. 
But retaining the high yielding types is of first importance, and a check 
should constantly be kept on the work. There is some danger of making the 
variety uniform, or “thoroughbred,” in appearance and mongrel in yield. 
Breeders of Shorthorn cattle sometimes find that they have “thoroughbred 
red” families which are “scrub milkers’ and not very thoroughbred—uni- 
form—in beefing qualities. Once the value per acre of the variety of corn 
has been materially increased, the very choicest ears only being needed for 
the nursery breeding, seeds from the best remaining ears may be used in 
field planting, and seed grown from this selected stock for the market. The 
nursery must be large to give wide opportunity for securing superior indi- 
vidual plants and for testing the breeding power of many mother plants. 
Every year, or every few years, a commercial stock of seed may be drawn 
from the nursery, taken to the field and there multiplied. It may pay to 
grow corn in the nursery only every alternate year, growing in alternate 
years in large fields, for which purpose the seeds of the various blood lines 
are indiscriminately mixed. No-one can settle this and many other similar 
questions until experiments are made. 

Just now there is an excitement about Mendel’s Law. We hope that law 
will help to clear up many questions, both scientific and practical. But there 
are thousands of theoretical questions with practical bearing. Some of these 
may be as important, or even far more important, than Mendel’s Law. Let 
me urge that we extend, broaden out and intensify our endeavors in investi- 
gation along these lines. Let us urge the large equipment of laboratories and 
experimental grounds for plant breeding at public expense. Let us find and 
introduce those laws of business which will enable the private individual to 
secure larger rewards for supplying the world with new creations. The 
scientific workers in plant and animal improvement should realize that the 
people will appreciate large economic results, and will gladly urge the ex- 
penditure of what appears now very large sums of money, if we show as 
large a dividend as we might. Creating values and scientific work go hand 
in hand. The production of new wealth will supply the wherewithal to sup- 
port scientific research in natural and scientific evolution. Scientific research, 


62 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 


on the other hand, will furnish the laws to make easy and popular the pro- 
duction of wealth by dealing with the living forms we depend upon to pro- 
duce such a large part of the commodities needed by the world. 

The most important law is that by hybridizing we can create new values. 
The next most important law is that by selecting from among very large 
numbers we can segregate the individual plants or animals carrying these 
new powers and multiply them for our use. The great business proposition is 
that values can be enormously increased at relatively slight expense. Are 
not the government, the States and private individuals ready for larger co- 
operation, not only to learn more about how to breed, but also to extensively 
improve our useful friends, the plants and animals, upon whose powers of 
inheritance we so fully depend? 

The Chair: I believe there is a great deal in what Professor Hays has told us; 


that the principle which breeders of animals have found to be necessary, to breed, as 
they call it, from performance, should be used in our plant work. 


The following paper was read by S. A. Beach: 


CORRELATION BETWEEN DIFFERENT PARTS OF THE 
PLANT IN FORM, COLOR, SIZE AND OTHER 
CHARACTERISTICS. 


S. A, Beach, Horticulturist, New York State Experiment Station, Geneva, N.Y. 


Work in plant breeding, when considered from the standpoint of the 
worker, falls into two general classes. In one class the effort is to originate 
an improved strain or variety; in the other the object is to learn the phil- 
osophy of plant breeding, to discover the scientific principles involved and to 
illustrate the application of these principles. Immediate practical results are 
sought in one case; in the other a knowledge of the laws of plant breeding, 
by means of which continued progress may be made. The former, if success- 
ful, gives only something transient. The improved variety or strain which is 
produced will doubtless be superseded in time by something better, as the 
evolution of cultivated plants progresses. Such is the verdict of horticultural 
history. We look to the other kind of effort for the more permanent and 
eventually more rapid progress in breeding plants. It is the purpose of 
this essay to call attention to a question, the investigation of which may yield 
results of general importance and perinanent value, namely, the extent to 
which correlation between different parts of the plant in form, color, size and 
other characteristics may be regarded as a significant factor in plant breeding. 
Nurserymen, seedsmen, fruit growers and gardeners know many instances 
of such correlation, and often take practical advantage of it when making 
selections for propagation, albeit perhaps unconsciously, and without for- 
mulating in words a definite expression of their judgment on this point. 
Scientific investigators have also occasionally recognized instances where cor- 
relation is of significance as a means of selection in breeding or propagating 
plants, but it appears that this subject has not been investigated as system- 
atically and thoroughly as it should be. 

In plant breeding the chances for originating an improved variety are in 
some degree proportionate to the number of seedlings produced. Other 
things being equal, the more numerous the seedlings subject to selection, the 
greater the probabilities of finding the improvement sought. But the more 
seedlings one undertakes to grow the greater the necessity of getting rid of 
the undesirable ones at as young a stage of growth as possible, and thus 
avoid the labor and expense of growing a great number of useless plants; 
‘therefore, a skillful breeder does not defer the process of selection till the 
seedlings appear, but exercises rigid choice, perhaps with the seed which is 


64 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 


to be planted, and surely with the parents, or stock plants, from which he 
expects to take the seed, cions, buds or cuttings for propagation. Correlation 
of parts or characteristics in plants may be of use not only in selecting seed- 
lings, but also in choosing the parents, and even in choosing the seeds which 
are to be used in breeding. Notice a few illustrations. 

Geschwind’ finds correlation between the structure and the sugar con- 
tent of the beet-root. He states that, as a rule, high sugar content is asso- 
ciated with a small amount of woody tissue, and recommends that beets be 
selected for breeding which have but small amount of woody tissue, as shown 
by cross-section of the top. 

Henslow states that McNab finds that in breeding rhododendrons the 
best dwarf varieties are obtained by using pollen taken from the smaller 
stamens. 

Swingle® states that in Europe certain plant breeders who had long been 
engaged in breeding grain for the increase of the percentage of protein 
found recently that a high nitrogen content of the grain is correlated with 
blue stemmed plants, and since making this discovery have been enabled to 
make more progress in three years in increasing the nitrogen content of the 
grain by plant breeding than they had in many previous years’ effort toward 
the same object. 

Henslow* says that very dark crimson zonal geraniums are so nearly 
self sterile as to make seed raising difficult, the sterility being in proportion 
to the depth of color, which is correlated with proterandry. Paler varieties 
are more nearly homogamous and are very self-fertile. 

Tinker’ states that male vines of Vitis bicolor, Mx. at all ages, have 
leaves more lobed or divided than pistillate vines of the same species, and 
that tnis distinction is discernible in seedlings when they have put forth 
the sixth leaf. In his work in breeding grapes he finds it practicable to dis- 
card male bicolor seedlings when the sixth leaf is formed. 

Debruyker® has shown that correlation in length exists between the culm 
and the head and the upper internode and the head of the rye plant. He did 
not find, however, that heredity had any apparent influence on these features. 
Many instances exist of correlation between different parts of a plant in 
size, but not enough observations have been made to permit of general state- 
ments as to the full significance of this character in any particular class of 
plants. De Vries’ finds that there is a relation between the vigor of the 
plant in Oenothera Lamarckiana and the size, 7. e., length and thickness, of 
the fruit. The larger and more vigorous the plant, the longer and thicker 
the fruit; the shorter the fruit, the weaker and more slender the plant. 

In the vineyard of E. C. Gillett, Penn Yan, N. Y., is a vine of the Con- 


1Geschwind, L., Rev. Gen. Chim. Appl., 3 (1900). No. 12. Cited in Exp. Sta. Rec. 
XIII: 526. 

2Garden LX (1901); 228. 

2Swingle, W. T., Discussion on Plant Breeding at the New Haven meeting of A. 
iN; A; GC. E-S., wNov:, 1900: 

4Henslow, G., Jour. Roy. Hort. Soc. XXIV: 85. 

5Tinker, Dr. G. L., in personal communication to the writer, 1902. 

®Debruyker, C., cited in Exp. Sta. Rec. XIII (1901): 241. 

7De Vries, Hugo, Die Mutationstheorie. Erster Band (1901): 377. 


CORRELATION BETWEEN DIFFERENT PARTS. 65 


cord grape, from one side of which has appeared a sport, bearing much 
larger fruit and much larger seed than is grown on the normal portion of 
the same vine. Seedlings which I have grown from seeds produced by the 
sport are larger and more vigorous in type than those produced from seed 
produced by the normal canes. None of these seedlings has yet fruited. The 
fruit of Hercules grape, a labrusca-vinifera hybrid, has very large fruit and 
correspondingly large leaves. The same is true of Columbian Imperial, 
Pierce and other varieties which might be named. Delaware has small fruit 
and correspondingly small leaves; so also have Golden Gem, Golden Drop, 
Rebecca and others. In breeding grapes I have found among some very 
excellent varieties others that were exceedingly dwarfed in leaf and habit 
of growth. When such dwarf vines have been allowed to mature and bear 
fruit they have produced either small fruit, or small clusters, or both. Many 
hundreds of grane seedlings of known parentage wnich have been produced 
during the progress of my work in breeding grapes show that size and color 
of foliage, vine and fruit tend to be transmitted to the offspring with con- 
siderable uniformity—so much so, that the entire lot of seedlings of any 
particular parentage, whether pure bred or cross bred, when viewed as a 
whole, is usually of a characteristic type and distinct from the seedlings of 
other, albeit nearly related parentage. Similar results have followed the work 
with gooseberries. 

It should be remarked that in making observations on correlation of 
parts as to size it is important to give due consideration to the species or 
group features, if the individuals compared represent different groups. For 
example, some varieties of Vitis zstivalis Mx. may have larger foliage, but 
smaller fruit, than certain varieties of Vitis labrusca, yet within the limits of 
the species the larger types of leaf may be found associated with the larger 
types of fruit, and the smaller types of foliage with the smaller types of 
fruit. 

With the peach it is easy to find many illustrations of a correspondence 
in size between the foliage and the fruit. Compare, for example, the type 
of foliage found on Elberta, Crawford and other large fruited varieties, with 
the smaller, narrower leaves found on smaller peaches, like Golden Prolific 
and Hill’s Chili, and especially on the seedlings commonly called ‘natural 
fruit,’ which bear exceedingly small fruits. 

Finally, on the question of the correspondence in size of different parts 
of the plant the evidence at hand, although not sufficient to support a gen- 
eral statement that it does exist, gives enough indications that it may be 
found to make the subject worthy of investigation. 

The question of correspondence in color between different parts of the 
plant will now be taken up. In 1894, and again in 1897, a large number of 
varieties of apples in one of the orchards of the Geneva (N. Y.) Experiment 
Station were examined with reference to the color of the blossoms and blos- 
som buds. Space permits but a summary of results. Two hundred and ten 
varieties were under observation. There appeared to be no constant relation 
between the color of the bloom and the color of the fruit, except that a 
large majority of the very pale or very nearly white blossoms were either on 
crab apples or Russian apples. One crab apple, however, was recorded as 


66 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 


having pure white blossoms, while its fruit is well described by the name of 
the variety, which is “Blood Red.” 

Raspberries, Rubus strigosus and R. Ideus and R. occidentalis, which 
bear so-called white or yellow fruit, have correspondingly paler foliage and 
paler canes than the black or red fruited varieties. So, also, the purple rasp- 
berries (R. occidentalis-strigosus or occidentalis-Idzus hybrids) have a dis- 
tinct tinge on the foliage and canes corresponding to the purple color of the 
fruit. I have never known any exception to the above statements. 

Some roses with white blossoms have noticeably paler foliage than that 
of dark red varieties. Similar correspondence in color of blossoms and foliage 
has been observed among pelargoniums, cannas, asters and other flowers. 
Apparent exceptions are seen among some of the cross-bred perennial phloxes. 

Grapes with pale foliage, so far as I have observed, have so-called white 
fruit, or, at least, do not have dark colored fruit; but the converse is not al- 
ways true, for some Concord seedlings which have the white fruit have foliage 
nearly or quite as dark as the parent. In observing this feature the fully 
matured leaves should be examined. Many instances are known of. white 
fleshed peaches having correspondingly paler leaves and bark than have the 
yellow fleshed peaches. There is also often a noticeable difference between 
the foliage of varieties having pale yellow or lemon yellow flesh or skin and 
those having darker yellow flesh. 

Emerson’ writes me that there is a noticeable correlation between the 
color of flowers and the seeds of beans. Races, such as Jouies, Davis, Navy, 
etc., which have white seeds, always have white flowers. Races that nave 
black seeds, if memory serves me correctly, always have flowers that are 
strongly colored, e. g., Challenger Black. Races that have spotted seeds or 
seeds tinted usually have flowers also tinted. One cannot always tell, how- 
ever, by the tint of the flowers the exact degree of tinting or shading of the 
seeds. In the Blue Pod there is a correlation between the color of the flowers 
and foliage, as there is also with Scarlet Runner and White Dutch Runner. 
Seedlings of the last two are easily distinguished in one case by the reddish 
color of the stems, in the other by their light green color. Races with spotted 
pods, like Horticultural, usually have spotted seeds. 

Fraser* states that when the young stems or sprouts of the potato are 
either green or white, it is an indication that the blossom will be white. 
If the stems are colored the blossoms will likewise be colored. The state- 
ment is based on observations of about 280 varieties. 

Mr. C. W. Ward, Queens, N. Y., has called my attention to a correlation of 
color between the root and flower of the carnation, the white, yellow or red flower 
being associated with corresponding differences in the color of the root. Dor- 
ner writes me that he’ has noticed that carnation plants bearing white flowers 
have white roots; those with yellow flowers have yellowish roots; those hav- 
ing the various shades of pink and red have pinkish roots, and those with 
crimson and purple flowers have dark roots of a dull purplish red. Plants 
having variegated red and white flowers show roots varying between pink and 
white. Crimson and purple varieties often show a purplish tinge at the nodes. 


1Emerson, R. A. Horticulturist, University of Nebraska. 
“Fraser, S. In personal communication to the writer. 


*Dorner, H. B., Asst. Botanist, Purdue University. 


CORRELATION BETWEEN DIFFERENT PARTS, 67 


The above observations are made only for varieties having solid colors, and 
exceptions may be found, but none have yet been noted. 

In tulips the color of the flower may find a correspondence in the color 
of the bulb. 


Lastly, let me quote from Mendel’s observations on Pisum, as stated in 
his list of characters selected for his famous Experiments in Plant Hybridiza- 
tion. Among other characteristic differences in the varieties chosen for the 
experiments he mentions those which relate: 


“To the difference in the colour of the seed-coat. This is either white, 
with which character white flowers are constantly correlated; or it is grey, 
grey-brown, leather-brown, with or without violet spotting, in which case the 
‘colour of the standards is violet, that of the wings purple, and the stem in 
the axils of the leaves is of a reddish tint. The grey seed-coats become dark 
brown in boiling water. 


“To the difference in the colour of the unripe pods. They are either light 
to dark green, or vividly yellow, in which colouring the stalks, leaf-veins and 
blossoms participate.” 


Finally, on the question of correspondence in color of different parts of 
the plant, as was the case concerning size, it may be said that the evidence 
at hand, although not sufficient to support a general statement that such cor- 
relation always exists, certainly gives strong enough indications that it may 
be found to make the subject worthy of investigation. 


L. H. Bailey: Does the speaker find any correlation between the size of the leaves 
and the quality of the fruit? which after all is what we are after. 

S. A. Beach: Not necessarily. I believe that we may find a correlation between 
the texture, and the texture of the fruit. 

W. Bateson: In connection with this list of correlations which Mr. Beach has 
cited, there is a curious paradoxical case in the pea, Pisum sativum; the purple axil is 
correlated with a purple flower, while a white axil is correlated with a white flower. 
Curiously enough, in the sweet pea that is not necessarily the case. There are deep purple 
varieties of sweet pea which do not necessarily have a purple axil at all; but the 
contrary is not the case; there is no very white sweet pea which has a purple axil. 
I mention that as a paradoxical case which does not follow the same rule. 

N. E. Hansen: In the fall of 1898 I called on Mr. Gideon at his home in Ex- 
celsior, Minneosta. For the benefit of Eastern people I will say that he has raised 
more apple seedlings than any one else in the West. He said that it he had a 
seedling in which the leaves were small he threw it away always, while any seedling 
with large leaves he kept; he had found that the tendency was toward larger fruit. 

H. H. Groff: I would like to reconcile the reasoning of Professor Beach that the 
experimental worker is likely to overtake his more strenuous brother for the reason that 
the latter’s efforts will soon be overtaken by his later and greater activity. I under- 
stand that that is the reasoning which he advocated, thereby sweeping away the experi- 
ence of Mr. Burbank, Mr. Hays, and, I would like to add, myself. ‘ 

S. A. Beach: I had no idea of undervaluing the work of the practical plant 
breeders; I believe in it thoroughly, and my only point was that I wished their assistance 
in trying to secure all the information possible, so that we can get at all data possible, 
classify it and put the whole business of plant breeding upon as nearly scientific a basis 
as possible. When we have done that, I think we can make more rapid progress than 
without it. 


1Mendel, Gregor. Reprint in Jour. Roy. Hort. Soc. XXVI. (1901) :6, 


A paper was here read by O. F. Cook, Botanist in charge of Tropical Agriculture, 
U. S. Department of Agriculture: 


EVOLUTION UNDER DOMESTICATION 


[This paper has not been submitted for publication, but the discussion thereon is given below. ] 


io 


W. Bateson: The author of this paper raises a number of questions ot very great 
theoretical importance. As I understand it, he proposes to distinguish variations accord- 
ing as they are debilitating, or, if I understand rightly, progressive. Such distinctions 
have, of course, in the past been attempted, but I feel that we should be better able to 
appreciate his position if he would indicate the tests by which he proposes to draw those 
distinctions. For my own part, I know no such tests, and I should like to ask him how 
he wculd propose to apply a test that would distinguish the debilitating variation from 
the progressive variation. 

O. F. Cook: I am not trying to do what has been done in the past in that direction, 
but recognize the debilitation of a symptom of an evolutionary debility, if you will allow 
that expression (I don’t know of one that will meet the case any better), and that those 
varictions called mutations and also variations from many hybrids where the fertilization 
fails to grow, or is incomplete, are symptoms of organic or evolutionary debility. The 
test is not in the variation itself so much as in the history, as these things may be learned 
from our knowledge of the history of plants. On the other hand, there is, I think, prob- 
ably a difference in the variations as noted; that is, there are (1) these abrupt variations 
without the gradations, and (2) the multitude of intergradations that we find in large 
species in nature which are freely breeding. We get these pronounced variations, which, I 
believe, are abnormal, and although there is no distinction to be drawn perhaps between 
the kinds of variation, there is a difference, as we might say, in the temperature 
of the body. We find a man lying on the street or somewhere; we find wmether he is 
warm or not, and if he is cold we think he is dead. If he is warm we think he is alive; 
if he is extremely warm we recognize that he is ill. And so I think with this variation. 
It is a quality that is normal to a certain degree and may be abnormal in a greater 
degree. 

W. Bateson: I want to know how we are able to recognize these differences. The 
speaker tells us that he will distinguish certain variations in a certain way, but I want 
to know how we can do it. What we want is a thermometer. 

O. F. Cook: This, of course, is a question of degree. I think it is a matter that 
needs to be used with some sympathy, perhaps, to be appreciated. But I cited the coffee 
as a typical instance of a plant which, without selection, was producing relatively sterile 
variaticns. I may say also that I found excellent opportunities in Guatemala recently to 
see the tests of the varieties that have been advertised in coffee, and also to see a great 
many of these mutations that are exceedingly interesting, but much less fertile than the 
parent. The infertility occurs with offspring that produce a small number of berries, or 
that produce an abnormal number of berries, with but a small number of seeds, and so 
on through, and all these in the aggregate are less fertile than the parent form. Now, 1 
am associating that fact with the historical fact of inbreeding, unintentional in this case, 
and associating it also with the general well-known fact that close breeding 
tends to sterility. That is a fact that I do not pretend to explain in the sense of a 
molecular or other cause. I am simply suggesting that association, and that association 
applies not only in the cases where it has been applied, but to a much larger extent than 
has been supposed. In the case of the wheat there is a distinction to be drawn. We 


70 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 


have not only the case of the wheat, but also the cases of plants, such as tropical fruits, 
like the banana, that have been propagated for thousands of years from cuttings. Those 
plants, with a strange uniformity, have declined in power of fertility. We ascribe that to 
selection, with no explanation of how selection brought this about, apparently; but if we 
ascribe it to inbreeding that seems ro me a much more satisfactory explanation. In the 
case of wheat, of course, we have many other instances of that kind where plants have 
adopted a habit of inbreeding. I think that in many cases this is misinterpreted. These 
cases where inbreeding is common and frequent have been interpreted as universal cases. 
I believe there is a great distinction between a cross-breeding now and then in several 
generations, and a continuous and universal inbreeding. To what extent plants uniformly 
and continuously inbreed, I think is a question still open for discussion. However, 
supposing that that has become common and uniform, that fact, I believe, removes the 
wheat from the class of normal plants and those that are making good evolutionary 
progress, and places it alongside those that, like the banana, no longer produce seed, but 
vary, and their condition is no longer one of species, but of a mere fan-shaped divergence 
accompanied by very slight evolutionary progress. They are no longer bound together 
as species; they have abandoned that proposition. In other words, normal inbreeding, 
normal close-breéding, as in the case of wheat, would be a phenomenon to be associated 
with a sexual propagation, with parthenogenesis, and with other types of a sexual re- 
production. 

The Chair. I think the question of Professor Bateson is one in which we are all 
interested. It is this: Can Professor Cook give any definite test, specific test, that will 
‘cause a plant to be classed as a debilitated or a progressive variation? 

QO. F. Cook: Just in that form I do not consider the question a fair one. That 
is, the proposition is this: I have made the statement that there is such a relation between 
the inbreeding and the relative sterility, and the question is whether evolutiomists, wheat 
breeders and otherwise, find that this relation holds good. If they do, why my whole 
contention is justified. It is not a question of test; it is a question of observation, and if 
the phenomena bears that interpretation, why, then, I think it may be a means of 
progress to make that observation. 

D. T. MacDougal: I regret to say that I cannot find myself in accord with Mr. Cook 
in his statement concerning De Vries’ mutation of species. I have been in rather close 
correspondence with Professor De Vries, and I am quite sure that Professor Cook is 
mistaken when he says that mutation species are sterile. On the other hand, there have 
been twelve species originated by mutation, and some of those are sterile and some are 
fertile, and, this very mutation of species has produced more sterile and more fertile 
species. Now, as to general debility, whatever that may be taken to mean, I am quite sure 
that this debility does not show in the vegetative part of the plant. I have specimens grow- 
ing in the houses of the New York Botanical Garden, and these forms may be exhibited 
to you to-morrow if you like, five of De Vries’ mutation species, together with some of 
the original stock, and so far as the vigor—also a general expression which may mean 
a lot of things—so far as the vigor and general appearance of the mutation species are 
concerned, they are quite as strong in every way as the parent. I am not sure how far 
this affects Professor Cook’s paper, and I find his entire paper rather significant and quite 
interesting. It is quite apropos that I should receive this morning a letter from Pro- 
fessor De Vries, dated the 20th of September, in which he speaks of his mutation experi- 
ments with Genothera cruciata, a narrow-petaled form from the Adirondacks, which he 
has had under cultivation for some time. He writes to ask me if certain changes ever 
take place in this plant in America. I have just consulted with Dr. Britton, who, per- 
haps, has studied this plant as thoroughly and as long as any man in the country, and 
Dr. Britton tells me that he has never seen these changes, and so far as he knows they 
do uot occur in this country. This, therefore, I think, justifies me in announcing at this 
time that Professor De Vries has succeeded also in obtaining a mutation species in 
Gencthera. 

W. Fawcett: I did not understand Professor Cook’s statements about coffee and the 
effects that breeding might have upon the increase of the size of the berry. Nothing 
whatever has been done in the West Indies in that direction, and I think probably that 
is the reason why the coffee has been so full of vigor and less liable to disease than in 
some other parts, like Ceylon. But the plan of getting young coffee crops is this: During 
a great part of the year the crop does not pay to pick. There are always some ripe ber- 


EVOLUTION UNDER DOMESTICATION. 71 


ties on the trees; these drop, germinate, and take root, and then the planters choose the 
best and strongest of those “suckers,”’ as they call them, for replanting. Now that is a 
natural selection, which, I think, has had great influence on the vigor of the trees, and, 
probably, if the planters made nurseries and germinated all the seeds from a tree, whether 
they were constitutionally strong or weak, they would probably not get as good results. 
But i think the paper of Professor Cook will certainly do a great deal to open the eyes 
of coffec planters in the West Indies to the question, and probably something will be 
done to test his theory in every way. I think the West Indies are much obliged to Pro- 
fessor Cook for taking up these tropical subjects. 

W. M. Hays: I am exceedingly interested in this paper. We need studies in the 
theory along this line. I have had charge of some experiments for a dozen years in wheat, 
which, as I have already said, is close-fertilized, close-pollinated; and I want to emphasize 
one of the general features he brought out in his paper by an illustration which the wheat 
makes possible. We have in Minnesota two varieties of wheat that are almost universally 
grown, the common Red Fife and Velvet Chaff or Blue Stem wheat. On the University 
farm, where I am located, Fife wheat has averaged, we will say, 22 bushels for ten years, 
and under exactly similar conditions Blue Stem wheat has averaged 24 bushels. We take 
larze numbers of these and plant the seeds, take choice seeds from each, selecting the 
choicest plants, and selecting from those the choicest seeds, and plant large blocks, we 
will say 5,000 for convenience, one seed in a place, four inches apart each way. We have 
devised a machine for planting them, so a man puts one seed in each of fourteen cups 
and throws the fourteen seeds over at one time. Another man throws the machine forward 
four inches, so that the wheat is planted under very uniform conditions. At harvest the 
choicest plants one way and another are gotten at, those that yield best and have good 
quality. Those are tested.in the nursery for three years, by growing too plants from each 
of these mother plants. We will say we start with 100 mother plants, chosen as the best 
plants out of 5,000. These are run for three years, and the best 100 plants are chosen each 
year. At the end of three years, then, we have the measure of each 100 mother plants, not 
in terms of its own yield, but in terms of the yield of its progeny, of the average of its 
progeny. These plants are taken and the number is counted and the whole is threshed, 
and the total weight of the wheat is divided by the exact number of plants harvested. 
We will say, for example, that one mother plant yields a progeny that average 
7 giams, another one 61-2 grams, another one 6 grams, and so on, variations running 
down, we will say, from 7 grams down to 4 grams. Then we pick out the best from that 
and take varieties. These varieties are grown then for three or four years alongside the 
plants of the two foundation varieties. The possibilities of getting a high yielding variety 
lie, as President Northrop quoted somebody in expressing the idea, in the projected effi- 
ciency of each of those 109 original mother plants we start with. We gradually throw away 
those with the least efficiency and finally take a comparatively few from the field that have 
the greatest projected efficiency, the greatest ability to project their peculiar heredity into 
varieties that will yield well in the fieid. We will assume for the purpose of the point 
I wish to make that we can raise the yield this way three bushels in each case; the Fife 
wheat we can raise from 22 to 25 bushels, and the Blue Stem from 24 to 27 bushels. Now, 
we can raise that by using large numbers and getting the plants that will make the largest 
yield, that have the highest projected efficiency, if you please, and then we can go a little 
further. If we use larger numbers we may add a little to that 25 and 27 bushels, and I 
may say that it has proven perfectly practicable to make varieties from single plants of 
wheat. Whether these will remain with their high ability for a long period of time, of 
course only time can tell, and it may be better perhaps to make the varieties from 2 
number of foundation mother plants; but we have certainly run for ten years, and their 
ability to yield well has kept up. Assuming, then, that the yield is 25 bushels in one case 
and 27 in the other, we go back now to the matter of hybridizing these two varieties. The 
averasze between these two varieties would be 23 bushels. When we hybridize them we 
get in many cases plants that on the average are away down the scale, that perhaps would 
not have a yielding ability of over 10 or 15 bushels; in some cases we may get 20 bushels 
or even 23 bushels, possibly in some cases higher: but if we get a single pant with a 
higher yield, that is sufficient, because in the hybrids we take single plants again, and if 
we can get an occasional plant that has a projected efficiency that will give us a yield 
higher than 23 bushels, we can then get from that hybrid varieties that yield still 
more than from either of the simple stocks from which we started. Now, this experience 


72 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 


has led me to rather feel that this is a simple statement of the whole proposition that we 
are up against in our breeding. We want to use those means that create variation, and 
we want to use the best stocks we can get. We want to tip the land, as it were, and we 
even tip it at the lower end of the line far more than the other. We have hybrid varie- 
ties, many of them, in which there are no very good plants, plants with a very poor yield, 
but we have occasionally a hybrid that has some plants that are exceedingly strong in the 
combination of qualities we desire. 


D. Morris: Here is one point in regard to what Professor Cook has laid before us 
this morning. He has cited coffee as an instance of a plant which has been for years 
under cultivation, and that there is little sign of variation amongst the coffee plants now 
cultivated in different parts of the world. As regards the New World, I should think 
that is owing to the fact that probably all the plants of the New World that are under 
cultivation now were originally obtained from one single plant which was brought to 
Jamaica, and from there coffee plants were distributed to various parts of the New 
World. Then there is another factor. When the coffee industry is being established, seed 
is taken from healthy trees, and once the estate is established the trees last for anything 
from thirty to forty or fifty years. So that the opportunity for variation from seed is 
comparatively small. There are some trees now growing in certain parts of Jamaica that 
‘are estimated to be anywhere from 60 to 80 or 100 years old; consequently, the coffee 
plant is different from an annual, because there the planting and the opportunities for 
variation are very considerable; whereas in the coffee plant, first of all started from one 
individual plant brought into the New World, and also the fact that the opportu- 
nities for variation are so small when once the trees are established, the situation is 
different. And I will mention that there is no plant so variable as coffee when once 
brought into contact with other forms. We have in cultivation in different parts of the 
West Indies the common Arabian coffee; as a variety of that I know a plant generally 
called Mocha coffee, with small berries; then a species was introduced from West Africa 
called Liberian coffee; then lately we have had a small berry coffee from Sierra Leone. 
Those being grown together in many gardens at the present moment, we cannot get any 
of those coffees perfectly pure from seed. The other day I saw a bed of coffee seed- 
lings, and it was almost impossible to say what those seedlings were. I do not state 
these facts as an argument against what has been advanced by Professor Cook, but 1 
think it is valuable to place on record the circumstances connected with the coffee plant 
as it is now being cultivated in the West Indies. I know that in estates in Jamaica 
there are variations between the coffee plants; there are some with rather large leaves 
and that yield good crops; there are others with small leaves that yield small crops, and 
so on through many variations. Then we have other trees that, instead of the hori- 
zontally spreading branches that the coffee tree usually has, have an erect habit, and 
those are often called by the planters male trees. In fact, I have been in Ceylon for many 
years, 1 have been in the West Indies for many years, and I have been very closely con- 
nected with coffee cultivation, and I should say that if you were critically to examine the 
coffee plants from different parts of the world I think you will find a good deal of varia- 
tion amongst the individual plants at the present time. But, generally speaking, Professor 
Cook is quite right, that, looking largely at the coffee as grown in Central America and 
the West Indies, the coffee is fairly uniform in character. But still I don’t know 
whether that is a good illustration to support his arguments. We have the fact that 
the coffee has probably been derived from a single plant; we have the other fact that 
establishing plantations of coffee can only take place at very long intervals, and 
coffee planting has been extended of late years only in Mexico and Central America. 
So, if we look for variations in the coffee trade we must look in those countries where 
is has been more lately introduced. 


W. Fawcett: I would like to say there have been some considerable additions to the 
coffee area under cultivation in late years, the last ten years or so. 


D. G. Fairchild: I should like to have Professor Cook elaborate briefly a sentence 
which reads as follows: ““As organisms increase in complexity, they are less able to per- 
sist in a simple series, but require the interweaving of different lines of descent.” Has 
this any bearing upon the fact that has been so clearly brought out by Mr. Burbank, that 
his best results in breeding have been with sports of plants which were represented by a 
large number of different so-called species? His plums, many of them, he told me, would 


EVOLUTION UNDER DOMESTICATION. 73 


represent six botanical species; the fruits embody the blood, so to speak, of six distinct 
types. 

W. H. Evans: Bearing out the remark of Dr. Morris, recently I got a report from 
the Hawaiian Islands, and one of their most prolific varieties, and what they. consider 
their best coffee there, is what they call Horner’s Guatemala, which is a variation from 
the Guatemala coffee. It is being grown by Mr. Lewison, and he considers it not only 
the most prolific, but it has the best flavor. 

O. F. Cook: Guatemala is an extremely favorable country for coffee culture. Their 
coffee is magnificent, and that it should have greater vigor, etc., than other coffees from 
some other regions that I have seen I can readily imagine. My contention in regard to 
coffee was that, while coffee was an extremely uniform and stable plant as compared with 
any wild species, yet when it did vary the variations were pronounced, and it was this 
pronounced variation, accompanied by relative sterility, that I noted as the facts that I 
wanted to bring into relation. In relation to the question of sterility, I thought I had 
made it plain in my paper that this is a relative question. That is, Professor De Vries, 
and I think Dr. MacDougal, will have to admit that the average fertility of nearly all 
mutations is far below that of the parent, I think that is the case, and it is so repre- 
sented by Professor De Vries himself. Then, furthermore, I have asked my evolutionary 
breeding friends to produce a mutation or a sport so-called which exceeded the parent 
in reproductive fertility. I am aware that the vegetative fertility or vigor is a matter that 
is often very slightly conneced with the reproductive strength. We have that in the case 
of the banana, for instance. That and other plants that have been in cultivation in the 
tropics for a much longer time than other plants have been under cultivation have tended 
very much to a lessening of the fertility from seeds. With reference to Mr. Fairchild’s 
question, I would say that I have associated those two facts, that is, the wide distribu- 
tion of plants with recent evolutionary progress; and the subsequent segregation of species 
among those plants is itself an indication that when those plants are crossed you restore 
at once this greater species evolution, so to speak. At any rate, whatever would take 
place in such plants would depend upon the divergence that had already been attained. 
If the divergence is too great, then you would get even in those plants relatively sterile 
hybrids. Of course, they may produce an extraordinary and much greater abundance of 
fruit. 


COT 
HWW, 


The following paper was then read by Will W. Tracy, of Detroit, Michigan: 


VARIANT TENDENCY AND INDIVIDUAL PREPOTENCY 
IN GARDEN VEGETABLES 


W. W. Tracy. 


SYNOPSIS, 
The examination of a great number of plants will sometimes reveal what 
would not appear from a more careful study of a few. 


1. Different plants of the same natural order tend to vary along parallel 
lines. 

2. The natural orders are distinctly but differently influenced by con- 
ditions of soil and climate. 

3. Cultural and climatic conditions are cumulative in their influence 
and affect the whole species. 

4. The variant tendency in a race is common to different stocks and 
peculiar to each season. 

5. Seed of the same stock and equally well grown, under precisely the 
same conditions, differ in adherence to type in different seasons. 

6. Seed of individual plants of the same pedigree, grown under the same 
conditions and equally adherent to type, differ in prepotency or 
ability to reproduce themselves. 


I do not claim to be a scientist, or that any investigations I may have 
made have been conducted in a strictly scientific manner, particularly as to 
their records, and my only excuse for occupying your time is that I have had 
exceptional opportunities to observe a vast number of plants of different 
garden races, both as to their variant tendencies and the influence of condi- 
tions of heredity and environment. For the past twenty years | have annually 
examined, for the purpose of detecting variation and the influence of heredity 
and environment, some 400 acres of tomatoes, I,000 acres of cucumbers, 5,000 
acres of garden beans, 200 acres of cabbage, and corresponding quantities of 
other garden vegetables and flowers. ‘These crops have been grown in widely 
separated fields, under different conditions of soil and climate, and most of 
them from seed with whose pedigree I have been familiar, in some cases, 
back for ten or more generations. Jt seems to me that such extensive obser- 
vation of an immense number of individuals, developed under varying con- 
ditions, might give hints of certain facts which would not be revealed in a 


76 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 


more critical study of the comparatively few specimens to which an intensive 
study is necessarily limited, and the purpose of this paper is the statement of © 
some convictions in regard to racial variation which have resulted from such 
observations. 

1. The different plants of the same natural order tend to vary along 
parallel lines. Fruits of the variety of tomatoes known as Early Conqueror, 
those of the pepper known as Squash or Tomato shaped, and of the Scarlet 
Fruited egg plant, could be selected, which would be as much alike in form 
as fruits from a single plant of any one of them; and I have seen a “potato 
ball” of the same form. I have found fruits of squash, muskmelon, water- 
melon and cucumber each having the peculiar forms and markings generally 
confined to one of the others. Thus, last year, I found a plant of watermelon 
whose fruit was distinctly warted, and in form would pass for a fairly typical 
one of Summer Crookneck Squash. I have seen muskmelons as flat and 
deeply scalloped as a fair sample of White Bush Scalloped Squash—squashes 
as well netted and distinctly ribbed as a Bay View Muskmelon. And it is 
taste and usefulness rather than limitation of variant tendency which deter- 
mines the common shapes of each of these vegetables. I believe that hybridi- 
zation is often credited with variation which is due to this common variant 
tendency. 

2. The natural orders are distinctly, but differently, affected as to the 
character of their seed product, by conditions of soil and climate. For in- 
stance, if sweet corn, from the same ear, be planted where it will be subjected 
to different conditions of soil and climate, for but a single generation, the 
seed product will give plants differing materially in both stalk and ear. We 
think the same thing is true of wheat, oats and other gramineous plants. But 
we have never been able to detect the least difference in the character of seed 
grown from the same stock under different conditions in cucurbitaceous plants. 
We once planted a 1o-acre field with Round Icing watermelon, five acres with 
seed which had been grown for four generations within 100 miles of the Gulf 
of Mexico, and the balance with seed, originally of the same stock, which 
had been grown for five generations in Michigan, and the most careful exami- 
nation could detect no difference in the crop produced, either in earliness or 
other characteristics. “Quite distinct varieties of melon are common at the 
North and South, and sometimes northern and southern strains of the same 
variety are quite distinct, but we think that this comes from the selection 
of the sorts best suited to the climate and to difference of ideals, and conse- 
quently in selection of seed stock rather than from influence of climate. 

3. Cultural and climatic conditions are cumulative in their influence, and 
affect the whole species. 

Thus, the Lima bean, originally a climbing plant, continued so for many 
years, during which time several distinct races were developed, but no dwarf 
form appeared; then, within three years, dwarf forms of all the different 
racial types appeared, and in several different places simultaneously. The 
sweet pea, cultivated for many years and closely watched by many enthusiasts, 
gave only climbing plants until 1892, when the “Cupids,” or dwarf forms, ap- 
peared in at least three locations and different stocks and five individuals, and 
since then they have appeared in a great many different stocks and places, and 


VARIANT TENDENCY IN VEGETABLES. 17 


often where there could not have been pollen influence to induce the sport. 
In most vegetables, if any new form, no matter how distinct from those com- 
monly cultivated, appears in one stock and place, there is almost a certainty 
that practically identical variations will appear elsewhere. For instance, the 
Navy Blue Sweet Pea was a very new and distinct shade, and appeared in the 
fields of two cultivators the same year, the only discernible difference in the 
two sports being that the seed of one had a greater tendency to skin-crack than 
that of the other. This tendency to sport into new forms developing in the 
species rather than in any particular stock is often the cause of much annoy- 
ance to seedsmen, two or more of them being accused of sending out a new 
form under different names, when each supposed that he had the only origina- 
tion of that type. 

4. The variant tendency in a race is common to different stocks and 
peculiar to each season. 

For instance, in 1896, a distinct tendency to neckiness was noticed in 
Long Green cucumber; this increased in 1897, when I found several plants, 
all of the fruit of which more or less closely resembled that of the Summer 
Crooknecked Squash in shape. This tendency then gradually disappeared, 
giving place to one toward thicker fruit with white spines. 

5. Seed of the same stock and equally well grown, by the same culti- 
vator, in the same location, differ in the variant tendency, and the degree to 
which their product will be of the desired type in different seasons. The crop 
of seed of Green Globe Savoy Cabbage produced by a certain grower in 1893 
gave much more evenly typical plants and heads than any subsequent crop 
produced by him of the same strain, though he took the greatest care in 
selecting stock and growing the plants, even setting them in the same field 
that gave the superior crop. I have known a practical seedsman, one not 
likely to waste money on a mere theory, to pay treble the market price for a 
certain strain of peas produced by him four years before, though he had an 
abundance of seed of the same strain grown by himself in succeeding years— 
none of these later crops giving such good results as seed of that particular 
season, 

6. Seeds from individual plants of precisely the same pedigree grown 
the same season in the same field and equally true to the desired type vary 
in the degree to which their product will adhere to that type. I have gone 
into a field of Beauty tomato, of which every plant was from seed of an ideal 
plant selected the year before from a field similarly grown, and spent hours in 
picking out five ideal plants, and succeeded in getting those so nearly equally 
of the desired type that I could not distinguish one from the other; sowed 
and planted the seed separately and found that the seed of one of these gave 
fruit quite distinctly inferior to that of the general crop of seed; another 
gave fruit much superior, while that of the others was intermediate in quality. 
This is but one of scores of similar experiences which have convinced me that 
the most certain, if not the only, way to secure a high degree of uniformity 
and excellence in a race of vegetables is, first, to form a definite and distinct 
idea of what the race should be; then by selection and testing, find not only 
an ideal plant, but one of the greatest possible prepotency or ability to repro- 
duce itself, and to multiply the descendants of this plant as rapidly as possible 


78 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 


until the entire stock is the lineal descendant of that individual plant—guard- 
ing against degeneracy by a never-ceasing search for other individual plants 
of equal or greater potential excellence, to be in turn increased. 


O. F. Cook: I want to say that I speak of coffee as an illustration, not as an argu- 
ment, and I tried to avoid, as you may say, the use of conflicting instances because of 
the variety of interpretations that could be put upon them. But I want to claim Mr. 
Tracy’s as an instance of an application of my theories, and, furthermore, that they can 
be tested by such facts, and that I can accept Mr. Tracy’s facts as normal and as actual, 
and I don’t believe that the current theories can accept such facts without violation to 
the assumptions that are made on them. 

The Chair: I am sure we all feel very grateful, indeed, to Mr. Tracy for his paper. 
It has a special value because of the fact of his connection with seed interests in this 
country, and his very great onnortunities for observation. Provably there are few whose 
experience is so extended as that of Mr. Tracy. and I am quite sure that when his paper 
is published we will read it with very great interest, and possibly our scientific friends 
may, from the account which he gives, be able to reach some conclusions that they might 
not otherwise have formed. 

D. G. Fairchild: Mr. Tracy cites an example of a tomato in which five plants were 
chosen, and the progeny from those five plants varied greatly. Were those piants self- 
fertilized, or is it possible that the male parent may have influenced the progeny dif- 
ferently? 

W. W. Tracy: The plants were in a single field side by side, and they may have 
been cross-fertilized, but they were from the same blood line exactly. In this particular 
case of tomato I know of five generations from the same plants. 

W. M. Hays: It has appeared to me that a plant like beet is entirely self-fertilized. 
There is evidence in a general way, and I think some positive evidence, that wheat does 
occasionally cross-pollinate, and it may be due to these occasional crosses that wheat 
is invigorated, and that some one plant among the crosses produced in nature finally 
dominates, increases more rapidly and becomes the major part of a new variety. 

W. Bateson: I heard Mr. Tracy’s paper with the greatest possible interest. I have 
been experimenting with the Cupid sweet pea, and I think the possibility attaches itself 
at once that it is a pure form, which may possibly explain the reappearance of that form 
subsequently and simultaneously in different localities. If, for example, the Cupid may 
once appear in a seed grower’s field where it could get crossed on to another sweet 
pea, then such crossing does occasionally happen. In our country the crossing of sweet 
peas is occasionally accomplished by the leaf-cutting bee. If the pollen of a Cupid sweet 
pea were to get on the flowers of a tall growing sweet pea, then the seed might be scat- 
tered all over the country by the seed grower, and it would not appear the second year. 
Then the third year the seed might be distributed, and then the Cupid might appear. 
Of course, the simultaneous appearance of the Cupid in the third year of its sowing is a 
strong evidence that once a form has appeared its appearance in three years is explicable. 


The following paper was read by D. Morris: 


IMPROVEMENT OF THE SUGAR CANE BY SELECTION 
AND CROSS FERTILIZATION 


Sit Daniel Morris, K. C, M. G., M. A., D. Sc., F. L. S., Imperial Commissioner of 
Agriculture for the West Indies. 


The consideration of the improvement of the tropical sugar cane is in 
some respects out of the line of the majority of the subjects presented at this 
Conference. It may be convenient, therefore, to afford some information in 
respect to the conditions under which the cultivation of the cane is carried 
on in the West Indies and elsewhere. 

The sugar cane is a tall-growing grass with a solid stem, containing a 
sweet juice. Its original home is unknown, but probably it was native of 
some parts of the East Indies and the islands of Polynesia. It is now believed 
to be found nowhere in a wild state. It was introduced from the East, by 
the way of the Mediterranean, to the Canary Islands, and thence to the New 
World. It was largely pianted in Brazil, and about 1640 it was introduced to 
Barbados. The descendants of the original canes are probably still to be 
found in some parts of the West Indies. 

In the latter part of the eighteenth century a ship was commissioned by 
King George III. and sent to the Pacific (South Sea) Islands to collect and 
convey to the West Indies sugar cane and other economic plants. These 
were afterwards established at St. Vincent and Jamaica. By this means what 
are known as the Otaheite and Bourbon canes were successfully introduced to 
cultivation. These, and various forms that have arisen from them, have since 
been adopted as the standard canes in most of the sugar-cane countries in 
the New World. 

VARIETIES OF CANE. 

The chief varieties now under cultivation may be broadly grouped as fol- 
lows: (1) Otaheite, known also as Bourbon, Loucier, Lahaina, Bamboo, 
China; (2) White Transparent, known also as Caledonian Queen, Rappoe, 
Cheribon (Java), Crystallina (Cuba), Light Purple, Rose Bamboo; (3) Red 
Ribbon, known also as Mexican striped, Batavian striped, and striped Singa- 
pore. There are, besides dark purple canes, such as Queensland Creole, Black 
Java, Louisiana purple, Purple transparent. 

The mode of origin of most of these is now impossible to trace. They 
have probably arisen from bud variations or from. chance seedlings that 
attracted the attention of planters and preserved on account of their greater 
vigor and adaptability to environment. 


80 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 


MODE OF CULTIVATION. 


Until about thirteen years ago the sugar cane was entirely propagated 
by cuttings or slips. There are buds, with sleeping roots, arranged alternately 
at each node. These render propagation by cuttings simple and effective. 
Generally the top joints only are selected, but sometimes the whole cane is 
laid in a trench and buried. The canes may be grown in isolated clumps or 
stools, about five to six feet apart each way, or continuously in furrows. The 
period of growth, depending on the climate, may be limited, as in Louisiana, 
to eight months; or extended, as in the West Indies, to twelve or even six- 
teen months. 

IMPROVED VARIETIES. 

The problem to be solved in behalf of the sugar cane planter, briefly 
stated, is to raise strains or breeds of canes that will give more sugar per 
acre than is at present yielded by standard varieties, such as the White 
Transparent and other sorts. This may be accomplished (1) by an increase 
in the weight of cane produced per acre, either by obtaining larger individual 
canes, or by a larger number of canes in each stool; (2) by an increase in the 
amount of sucrose in the juice with a reduction in the percentage of glucose 
and other impurities; (3) by freedom of the canes from the attacks of fungoid 
and insect pests. ; 

The search for improved varieties has been carried on as follows: (a) 
by the introduction and experimental cultivation of selected canes from other 
countries; (b) by the experimental cultivation of canes (sports) arising from 
bud variation; (c) by the chemical selection of tops from individual canes or 
from stools exhibiting a high sucrose value; (d) by raising new varieties by 
cross-fertilization and selection. 

QUALITIES OF IMPROVED CANES. 

Before proceeding to describe what has been attempted under each of the 
heads above stated, it is desirable to mention that owing to the special cir- 
cumstances existing in tropical countries a new variety of cane in order to be 
completely satisfactory is required to possess, in a high degree, a large number 
of qualities. 

- The following are the more important field and factory characters, a con- 
sideration of which goes to determine the ultimate industrial value of any 
variety of cane: 

Field Characters: (1) Sprouting power of bud, and ability of cane to 
establish itself soon after planting; (2) behavior and adaptability under ex- 
treme conditions of dryness and moisture; (3) habit of cane, whether upright 
or recumbent; (4) power of resisting the attacks of insect or fungoid pests; 
(5) early maturity; (6) productive power estimated by the number of tons 
of cane yielded per acre; (7) weight and character of tops for fodder pur- 
poses; (8) readiness to produce successive crops from the same stools, that 
is “rattooning’”’ power. 

Factory Characters: (1) The milling qualities of the cane, whether tough 
or brittle, when presented for crushing; (2) fuel-producing properties depends 
on amount of fibre (sometimes the fibre is the only fuel available to boil the 
juice); (3) the relative percentage of expressible juice (determining the 


IMPROVEMENT OF THE SUGAR CANE. 81 


“dryness” or juiciness of the canes) ; (4) the richness of the juice in sucrose; 
(5) the purity of the juice—that is, the absence of glucose, etc. 


SELECTION OF EXISTING VARIETIES. 

During the last forty years collections of selected sugar canes obtained 
from various countries have been maintained under experimental cultivation 
at Java, Queensland, Mauritius, and in the West Indies. This was the original 
form of research in the endeavor to obtain richer and more hardy canes. In 
Jamaica, from 1875 to 1886, there were about sixty varieties of named canes 
cultivated at the Botanical Gardens in that island. A list, with description, 
was published in the Report of the Director for the year 1884. Similar collec- 
tions were also under experimental cultivation at Trinidad, British Guiana 
and Barbados. Francis at British Guiana and Harrison at Barbados were 
the first to start chemical investigations with the object of carefully deter- 
mining the sugar contents of the cane and estimating the relative merits of 
those under cultivation in the West Indies. These investigations were started 
about 1883, and have been confirmed by Harrison and others until the present 
time. The results of the examination of existing varieties has not led to 
any very striking or definite results. In countries where the Otaheite and Bour- 
bon canes are still free from disease, and the conditions are favorable for 
their growth. No other canes have, as yet, entirely taken their place. At Bar- 
bados, Antigua and St. Kitts, where the cultivation of the Bourbon cane has 
become impossible on account of its liability to fungous disease, other intro- 
duced canes are largely grown. There are also some seedling canes, but of 


these I shall speak later. 
BUD VARIETIES. 


A summary of information relating to canes raised as the result of bud 
variation (illustrated by colored plates) is published in the /Vest Indian Bul- 
letin, ii., pp. 216-223. Bud variation is not uncommonly met with in the sugar 
cane. Instances are recorded from Mauritius, Louisiana, Barbados, and 
Queensland. The differences between the sport and the mother plant are often 
as considerable as between the standard varieties of sugar cane. Bud varia- 
tion may give rise to: (a) differently colored sports on the one cane; (b) 
differently colored canes in one stool springing from the same mother cane; 
(c) a single cane with some joints striped and others unstriped. It has been 
noticed that colored canes raised from sports tend to come true to color. 
Finally the canes that have hitherto given rise to sports are striped or ribbon 
canes. 

In the matter of the distinctive character exhibited by sports it is recorded 
by Horne (Mauritius) that “most of the sports seem to be hardier than their 
parents and to yield more sugar;” Clark (Queensland) that “yellow sports 
have a tendency to grow sweeter than the colored canes of the kindred 
variety ;” Stubbs (Louisiana) states, “the sugar contents of sports are fully 
equal to those of the ribbon and purple canes over which they have as yet no 
pronounced excellencies.”’ | 

The systematic cultivation and testing of canes derived from bud varieties 
are being carried on by d’Albuquerque and Bovell, under the auspices of the 
Imperial Department of Agriculture at Barbados. The results will be pub- 
lished in the official reports issued by the Department. 


82 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 


CHEMICAL SELECTION OF PLANT CANES. 


The selection of tops for planting from canes of high sucrose contents is 
sometimes described as chemical selection. This selection of cuttings may be 
made (a) from different parts of the same cane; (b) from a selected single 
cane out of many in the same stool; or (c) from a selected stool with a high 
average sucrose content. 

There are some advocates of this method of improving the sugar cane. 
On the other hand Harrison is of the opinion that it is useless “to expend 
time, labor and money in attempts to raise improved canes by any system of 
selection of tops for planting.” 

It is advanced that the richest canes are simply those that are ripest and 
the best nourished; and that tops taken from such “richest canes” have a 
lower “germinating” power, and, possibly, are more liable, on account of 
their extra sweetness, to the attack of insect and fungoid pests. 


SEEDLING SUGAR CANES. 

Until within thirteen years ago it was generally understood that owing 
to the fact that the sugar cane for many ages had been propagated by cuttings 
or slips, it had lost the power of producing fertile seed. The flowering pani- 
cles (arrows) were often met with, but the seed was practically unknown. It 
is on record that canes, evidently grown from seed, were observed at Bar- 
bados in 1848 and 1850. At that time they were regarded merely as curiosities 
and no systematic attempts were made to grow them with the view of raising 
new varieties. The number of fertile seeds in each panicle is very small— 
possibly not more than 10 to 30 among several thousand spikelets—depending 
on the variety. Many canes produce neither flowers nor seed. What may be 
regarded as the effective discovery of seed in the sugar cane was made almost 
simultaneously by Soltwedel in Java and Bovell and Harrison at Barbados in 
1888.* Fungoid disease at that time had attacked many of the standard sugar 
canes, and in both the East and West Indies energetic efforts were being made 
to raise new canes equal, if not superior to the existing canes, but less liable to 
disease. The discovery above referred to was greatly appreciated, and was 
immediately utilized. Seedling canes have in recent years been extensively 
raised. The difficulties to be overcome are considerable, but the experiments 
now generally carried on on scientific lines afford the hope that canes yielding 
a larger tonnage per acre and possessing high saccharine contents will event- 
ually be obtained. 

The accompanying illustration indicates the parts of the flower of the 
sugar cane, the character of the seed and the mode of germination; the refer- 
ences to the detail sketches are as follow: 


*Journal Linnean Society, xxvili., 197. 


Sugar Cane: Parts of the flower, seed, and germination. 
(For references see next page.) 


84 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 


EXPLANATION OF PLATE. 
Fig. 1—Portions of flowering panicle of sugar-cane, showing arrangement of spikelets. 
Fig. 2.—A single spikelet enlarged (after Hooker); a = upper glume, b = pale, c = 
lower glume, d = anther, e = lodicules, f = ovary, g = stigma. 
Fig. 3.—Ovary and stigma. 
Fig. 4.—Caryopsis removed from glumes, with longitudinal and cross sections. 
Fig. 5.—Caryopsis, showing first stage of germination. 
Fig. 6.—Later stage of germination. 
Figs. 7, 8 and 9.—Germination observed when the caryopsis is still enclosed in its glumes. 
Fig. 10.—A seedling sugar-cane, natural size, three months old. 


The experiments with seedling canes in the West Indies have hitherto 
depended, for the most part, on chance fertilization in the field, consequently 
only the seed-bearing parent is usually known. In further experiments it is 
proposed to secure cross-fertilization of selected canes as follows: (1) By 
planting in adjoining plots two varieties that arrow at the same time, while 
other canes are not arrowing in the same district; (2) by growing side by 
side, in rows, canes of different varieties that arrow about the same time, and 
afterwards bending over the arrow-stalks and bagging them before the flowers 
are open; (3) by bagging each arrow to be experimented upon some time 
before it expands and when the arrows in the bags are ripe to shake the con- 
tents of the bags of a staminate variety into the bags covering the arrows 
of the pistillate variety. 

The majority of the best canes hitherto raised are of the first generation 
only. Seedling sugar canes, varying in number from two to twenty thousand, 
and even more, are now regularly raised in connection with the Experiment 
Stations in the West Indies. The first selection is made entirely from the 
field characters, but all subsequent selections are on the results of chemical 
examination. The number of selected canes that survive the tests up to the 
third or fourth year is probably not more than one in ten thousand. 

It is impossible in this brief sketch to summarize the results of experi- 
ments carried on in all parts of the West Indies. Important features in these 
experiments are the hearty co-operation and the valuable assistance received 
from the planters. In all cases appreciable areas are established with new 
canes, and these are subjected to severe tests before they are recommended 
to be planted on a large scale. 

The following is a description of one of the most promising seedling 
canes so far raised at the Barbados Experiment Station.* The results here 
given were obtained in the season 1890-1901 by d’Albuquerque and Bovell: 


BARBADOS CANE NO. 208. 

Germinates readily; from 10 to 15 canes to the clump; internodes from 
3 to 5 inches long, somewhat cylindrical; color greenish yellow; habit upright ; 
medium number of arrows; the dry leaves have a tendency to adhere; drought 
resisting. 

Chief mean results per acre: Canes 26-24 tons, saccharose’ 7,330 pounds 
(stands first in order of yield), juice very rich and pure, suitable for musco- 
vado manufacture. Number of rotten canes below the average. Red soils 


1Seedling and other canes at Barbados in 1901, pp. 23-25. 
2Saccharose and sucrose are interchangeable terms for chemically pure sugar. 


IMPROVEMENT OF THE SUGAR CANE. 85 


results equally favorable to the black soil results. Ratoons. This variety 
stood third in yield and gives saccharose 5,559 pounds, the juice being remark- 
ably rich and pure. 

This is the more promising selected variety under experimental cultiva- 
tion this year, and deserves careful trial to the extent of a few acres on every 


estate. 
Black Soils (plants and ratoons). 


iseeses yield, pounds saccharose per acke. .....-20esc.0e ccs ccesce ses 11,298 

Lowest yield, pounds saccharose per acre (mean of 2 plots)........... 5,492 

Meanyield, pounds saccharose per acre (all plots)..............2..5: 7,766 
Red Soils (plants and ratoons). 

Highest yield, pounds saccharose per acre (mean of two plots)........ 8,336 

Lowest yield, pounds saccharose per acre (mean of two plots).......... 4,369 

Mean yield, pounds saccharose per acre (all plots).................... 6,623 
Ratoons (red and black soils). 

Highest yield, pounds saccharose per acre (mean of two plots)........ 6,728 

Lowest yield, pounds saccharose per acre (mean of two plots).......... 4,369 

Meanwyield =pounds saccharose per acre (all plots) .5...0.0.......056.- 5,009 


Experimental samples of juice—results of 21 samples. 
Saccharose Ib. per gallon—Highest, 2.451; lowest, 2.028; mean, 2.254. 
Quotient of purity—Highest, 93.98; lowest, 83.08; mean, 90.30. 

Glucose ratio—Highest, 6.03; lowest, 1.85; mean, 3.11. 

This seedling cane has yielded equally promising results in 1901-1902 at 
Barbados as well as at Antigua and St. Kitts under Watts, Shepherd and 
Lunt, and on a limited scale under Hart at Trinidad. The important experi- 
ments carried on by Harrison and Jenman for many years at British Guinea, 
and now entirely under the control of Harrison, are expected to yield results 
of great value to that colony. 

It is impossible to omit a reference here to the experiments carried on 
with seedling canes at Java. The following is a summary of recent reports 
on the subject issued by Kobus at the East Java Sugar Experiment Station: 


IMPROVED SEEDLING CANES AT JAVA. 

In 1894 Dr. J. H. Walker, then Director of the East Java Sugar Experi- 
ment Station, found that the Cheribon cane bears infertile pollen while the 
ovary is normal. Consequently any fertile seeds formed by this cane are the 
result of cross fertilization by the pollen of another variety of cane, and the 
give rise to hybrid plants. About this time the new seedling canes raised 
were only those of well-known mother canes, e. g., of the Cheribon. The 
Cheribon in Java, like the Bourbon is the West Indies, is a cane with rich 
and abundant juice and is therefore valuable as a sugar producer. Unfor- 
tunately, like the Bourbon, it is also liable to disease. 

Soon after Wakker’s discovery, Dr. Kobus, the present Director of the 
East Java Sugar Experiment Station, suggested the crossing of the Cheribon 
with certain of the East Indian canes, imported by the Java Government from 
British India, so as to raise seedlings from the former cane crossed by the 
latter, some of which would probably combine the good qualities of the Cheri- 
bon with the disease-resisting power of the East Indian canes. Experiments 
at this station were set on foot to cross the Cheribon with the Chunnee variety 


86 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 


from India, a very vigorous and disease-resisting cane. Dr. Kobus has pub- 
lished four reports on the results of the seedlings obtained from the Cheribon- 
Chunnee cross. In raising the seeds the parent plants were planted alternately 
in rows: 


Cher. Chun. Cher. Chun. 
x x x x 
x x x x 
x x x x 
x x xX x 
x x x vA 
x x x x 
x x x x 


The reports are entitled De saadplanten der kruising van Cheribonriet 
met de Englesch-Indische variéteit Chunnee, and were published as the Pro- 
ceedings of the East Java Station Nos. 1, 12, 21, 33, of the Third Series. 

The seedlings raised are carefully grown for four years at the station 
and compared with the Cheribon. The best are then distributed to the estates. 
The anticipations of Dr. Kobus have been realized, as canes combining both 
high sugar content and disease-resisting power have been obtained by this 
cross. The yield of sugar of some from the canes is said to vary from 6 to 8 
tons per acre. In some cases the fecundating power of the pollen of the 
Chunnee is so strong that more than 95 per cent. of the hybrids resemble the 
male parent.* | 


D. G. Fairchild: Has that investication of Dr. Stubbs taken this direction, as to 
whether there are occasional joints or buds which produce better yield, so that they can 
be taken as a unit, as Mr. Tracy mentions in his paper, and each one of those joints can 
be taken as a basis of a new variety? 

D. Morris: J am afraid that Dr. Stubbs has not been able to go so far as that. 
What he has done so far, I think, he has followed the canes up to two or three years 
only. He has not been able to take them on a sufficiently large scale for that purpose. 

S. A. Beach: Mr. President, I was somewhat interested in the account Mr. Morris 
has given of the methods of cross-pollination with the sugar cane, and it has reminded 
me of some results that were secured in my laboratory by Mr. Gould, which are pre- 
sented in Paper No. 20, in which he found that it is possible to discover by microscopic 
examination of the pollen whether or not the pollen is fertile, whether or not the pollen 
is potent. That may be a point of some interest in selecting pollen-bearing canes, espe- 
cially along the line that Mr. Fairchild mentioned yesterday, where they may choose to 
select them, and send them from one place to another. Possibly a similar condition may 
be found in the pollen of the cane. If so, it would be a point of practical value to de- 
termine by microscopic examination whether or not that variety would furnish pollen 
that is potent. 

The Chair: Dr. Morris has certainly given us an exceedingly interesting paper. The 
subject is of very great importance to the world, though not of importance to the cultural 
operations of the Northern Hemisphere. I am quite sure that we most ot us had the 
idea that sugar cane for some reason does not now produce seeds. But Mr. Morris 
has clearly shown us that, while it produces a very small quantity, it does produce seeds 
which are capable of germination and from which results may be expected. 

D. G. Fairchild: I would like to ask Dr. Morris how large the plantations are at 
present in which these sugar canes of high sugar content are grown. I have met a num- 
ber of sugar planters in different parts of the world who have heard about these sugar 
canes in the West Indies and Java, and their objection seemed to be that the plants 


*Agricultural News, I., p. 146. 


IMPROVEMENT OF THE SUGAR CANE, 87 


when grown on a large enough scale do not, as Dr. Morris has pointed out, furnish a 
sufficient quantity of cane, a large enough yield, and I would like to know how much, 
how many acres, for example, of this especial kind or breed of cane is now growing in 
the West Indies. I mean of 208 only. 

D. Morris: Of this one cane that is now being distributed we have not more of 
this, I suppose, than about 20 acres in Barbados. Of seedling canes, generally, that is 
this one, 147, 95 and 109, I suppose in Barbados there may be 400 .or 500 acres; in British 
Guiana I am not quite sure; I think they have something like about 1,400 acres; that is 
of the seedlings generally. Naturally the planters, and we are very glad that they ate, 
are cautious in starting these seedling canes. If a man were to plant 100 acres in ew 
canes and the return was a very small one, it would be a very serious item to him. We 
do not wish to increase the difficulty of the planter, we wish to help him; and we always 
preach great caution in adopting new canes for general cultivation, 


The following paper was read by D. T. MacDougal: 


SOME CYTOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF HYBRIDS 


W. A. Cannon, Columbia University, New York. 


Lutil recently research upon hybrids has been almost entirely confined 
to the more practical problems, such as are connected with the formation of 
new or better sorts of plants, and students of pure science have given little 
attention to the subject. At the present moment, however, much interest is 
manifested by scientists in this direction, and this awakened interest is largely 
due to the republication by Correns and De Vries of Gregor Mendel’s ex- 
periments and results. The more recent studies have a two-fold nature. They 
are either experimental, as tae well known work of De Vries, Correns, Web- 
ber and Tschernak, or they are cytological; and each phase of the work has 
been undertaken entirely independent from the other. 

What are the relations of the cytological to the experimental researches 
of hybrids? This question can hardly be answered at this time, but the 
possible connection between tne two may be pointed out, however. 

Although it is not the purpose of this paper to set forth the conclusions 
of the experimenters, for illustration and for reference, it will be convenient 
to briefly present those of Mendel. 

Mendel studied the behavior of hybrid plants, not only in the first gen- 
eration—that of the immediate cross—but in the following ones as well, and 
learned (1) that in the first generation the hybrid shows the characters of 
one parent only, but that (2) the characters which were latent in this gener- 
ation appeared in the later ones, and in such a manner that the plants having 
the “dormant” and the “recessive” characters bear a certain and definite ratio 
to one another. 

In this connection it need only be said that while the conclusions of 
Mendel have been verified by the later researches, they have been found to 
be limited in their application to a special type of hybrid, namely, the Pisum 
type, while the greater number of hybrids belong to other types. 

In. the Pisum type the plants behave as if the bundles of inheritance 
which were derived from the parents of the original cross were kept separate, 
and were delivered as such to the succeeding generation, and, as if in fer- 
tilization, these were united in all possible proportions. This has been ex- 
pressed by the following formule: AtA, Ata, atA, ata. The result is that 
a certain per cent of the hybrids revert to the characters of tne parents of 
the original cross. Or, in other words, according to the laws of Mendel, we 
might expect that the chromatin derived from the primitive parents main- 


90 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW vYoRK. 


tained its individuality, and was disposed in such a manner at the time of 
the maturation mitoses that the resulting sex cells were not hybrid, but pure. 

A portion of this hypothesis has already been demonstrated to be true, 
namely, in hybrid ascaris, the chromosomes derived from the variety bivalens 
keep, separate from the one which is evidently from the wnivalens parent. 
And it will appear presently that an analogous condition may obtain in other 
hybrids. 

That a hybrid sex cell has chromatin of pure descent—that is, has chro- 
matin from one parent only, as the second law of Mendel apparently de- 
mands—is yet to be proved, and may be doubted on a priori grounds, since 
the wall separating the daughter nuclei is laid down at right angles and not 
parallel to the spindle of the dividing nucleus. However, if it can be shown 
that the Piswm type of hybrid, for example, is associated with the general 
behavior of the chromatin, as just suggested, a very important and forward 
step in explanation of the nature of this and other types of hybrids saall 
have been made. On the other hand, it will be quite as important to demon- 
strate that variation in hybrids may take place, even if the sex cells are 
formed in a manner identical with those in pure races. 

Now that I have pointed out the possible relation between the experi- 
mental and the cytological study of hybrids, I nasten to say that, in reality, 
up to the present moment there has been no such connection, since the cyto- 
logical work was mainly completed before the experimental was published; 
and, further, since the forms which have been turned to account cytologically 
have not been studied experimentally. With this I shall proceed to speak 
briefly of the cytological work. 

This has comprised studies by Guyer on the spermatogenesis of hybrid 
pigeons and cannas, by Juel on the spermatogenesis of hybrid Syringa, and by 
the writer on spermatogenesis of hybrid cotton. In addition, the study on 
Ascaris, already sufficiently alluded to, and also the structural study of sev- 
eral hybrid plants by Macfarlane may be included here. 

Concerning all of the plants upon which cytological studies have been 
made it may be said that they are first generation hybrids; that is, they are 
the offspring of the original cross. 

Guyer reports upon the spermatogenesis of hybrid pigeons, and also 
cannas, but since the results are analogous and the conclusions identical I 
need only outline the results of his study of the former. 

I understand that Guyer found in the pigeon normal and abnormal sper- 
matozoa and normal and abnormal maturation mitoses. In the normal male 
nuclei the first maturation division showed ring-formed chromosomes, of uni- 
form size, and of half the somatic number. He found, on the other hand, in 
the abnormal maturation mitoses that the ring-formed chromosomes might 
be of two sorts, large and small, or they might all be small; and if the latter, 
they were the same number as those in the stomatic nuclei. In such abnormal 
nuclei there was a tendency of the chromosomes to form into two groups, 
and this localization was taken to indicate the maintenance by the chromo- 
somes of their individuality. Tne general conclusion of the author was, that 
the variation noted in the maturation mitoses was likely associated with the 
variation of the hybrids themselves. 


CYTOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF HYBRIDS. 91 


Guyer had, I believe, like results from his study of hybrid cannas, except 
in the canna he found all gradations between direct and indirect divisions. 

The writer has studied the maturation divisions in the male nucleus of 
hybrid cotton, which was supplied him by Dr. Webber. The results of this 
study may be summarized as follows: Two sorts of maturation divisions 
were distinguished, one clearly normal, the other abnormal. Concerning the 
former it need only be said that the ring-formed chromosomes of the first 
division were of uniform size and of the reduced number. The spindle gave 
no indication of being double, and was entirely analogous with that in the 
pure race. The abnormal divisions were all direct, but varied in a manner, of 
which it is unnecessary here to speak furtner. Transitions between direct and 
indirect divisions were not observed. 

From my study I concluded that the normal divisions lead to fertility, 
the abnormal to sterility. 

The remaining purely cytological study is that by Juel on the sperma- 
togeneses of Syringa rothomagensis. Juel found abnormal mitoses only. These 
were all stages between direct nuclear divisions and indirect, save only that 
the chromosomes did not split, in the metaphase. 

What is the significance of Juel’s results? It is of interest here to note 
that the plant may be wholly sterile, since Focke observes that he has seen no 
fruit on it—that is, the abnormalities in spermatogenesis seen by Juel in 
the hybrid Syringa lead to sterility. 

Thus Juel’s results cause one to ask whether some, if not all, of the ab- 
normal sex nuclei observed by Guyer in pigeon and canna were not func- 
tionless, and whether the normal divisions alone do not lead to fertility? 
Such is apparently the case in the hybrid cotton. If only sex nuclei that 
undergo typical maturation mitoses form functional reproduction cells, it is 
clear that the variation, in some hybrids at any rate, must be occasioned by 
other causes than those of the irregularities in the splitting, distribution and 
union of the chromatin of the sex cells. 

Here it may be suggested that an experimental study of such a hybrid 
as shows a tendency toward maintaining the individuality of its chromosomes 
might be carried on with good results. Such a study should show the rela- 
tive sterility of the sex cells, and thus it would supplement the results derived 
solely from the cytological investigations. This has not yet been done, 
however. 

While the cytological data just given do not harmonize completely, fur- 
ther study may show that they are really not antagonistic, but that the differ- 
ent hybrids studied should either be placed in different hybrid classes, or that 
the “splitting” may not eccur in the first, but later generations. 

Thus the leading results which have been obtained by the cytological 
study of hybrids may be summarized as follows: 


(1) The establishment of one cause of sterility among hybrids. 

(2) The variation of the hybrid may or may not be associated with 
abnormalities in spermatogeneses ; and 

(3) That in certain cases the chromosomes derived from the original 
parent tend to preserve their individuality. 

Before closing this brief account of the cytological studies in aybrids I 


92 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 


wish to speak of the work by Macfarlane on the structure of certain hybrids, 
a work published about ten years ago. After giving in detail the minute’ 
structure of several hybrids, this author arrives at this general conclusion 
concerning the nature of a hybrid, namely, that it is a blending of the char- 
acters of the parents, each parent contributing equally to the offspring. The 
hybrid is thus intermediate in structure between the parents. 

Although it may be at this time premature to suggest a relationship be- 
tween the results of studies in the structure and those from experiment, 
nevertheless it is interesting to note that practically all of the hybrids re- 
ported by Macfarlane are of the intermediate type of Correns, and perhaps, 
therefore, such results as Macfarlane obtained might thus have been ex- 
pected. From this the possibility is suggested that hybrids which are not 
of the intermediate type may have a minute structure which is likewise not 
intermediate. No work on this phase of the subject has yet been done, 
however. 

Finally, as has already been stated in the foregoing summary of the re- 
cent cytological work upon hybrids, this line of research and the experimental 
have gone on independently of each other, but it may be reiterated here that 
in order to better understand the causes of the variations in hybrids and 
that of the differences in capacity for variability it is highly desirable that the 
cytological and experimental work go hand in hand, that cytological work 
be done on forms that give marked experimental results. 


A summary of the following paper was read by L. C. Corbett: 


IMPROVEMENT OF ROSES BY BUD SELECTION, OR 
BLIND VS. FLOWERING WOOD FOR 
ROSE CUTTINGS 


L. C. Corbett, Horticulturist, Department of Agriculture, Washington, D.C. 


The results which are recorded in the article prepared under the above 
title are based on a series of tests with rose cuttings made from “blind” and 
“flowering” ‘wood, and cover a period of five years. 

The work was undertaken to settle a point in dispute among commercial 
growers of roses as to the relative value of plants grown from blind and 
flowering wood for flower productions. 


VIEW POINT, OR QUESTIONS TO BE SETTLED. 

1. Do cuttings tend to perpetuate the individual peculiarities of the 
parent branch from which they are taken? 

2. Can accumulative results be obtained from a continuous use of cut- 
tings from wood with like habits? i. e., can the flowering habit of plants be 
increased by the continuous use of flowering wood selected through successive 
years from plants which have themselves been produced from flowering wood? 

For many years discussion has been rife among commercial growers of 
roses in regard to the flower or bloom-producing power of plants grown 
from what is known as “blind wood,” and those grown from “flowering wood.” 
These terms are familiar to all accustomed to the propagation and cultivation 
of the rose under glass; but in order that none may hold a misconception of 
the point in question, I present, (page 95), a figure representing the two types 
of wood spoken of. The branch at (a) in the engraving represents a char- 
acteristic shoot of the so-called “blind wood.” This shoot, it will be noticed, 
is of slender growth, somewhat willowy in character, and is terminated by a 
leaf instead of a flower bud. Branch (b) is a flowering wood shoot, as is in- 
dicated by the terminal flower bud. As a rule, “flowering shoots” are larger 
and more vigorous, but are also softer and contain a larger percentage of pith 
in proportion to the woody tissue than “blind wood” shoots. In general, how- 
ever, the “flowering wood” shoots are longer than the “blind wood” branches, 
and if the flowers are cut with short stems, then there is a considerable length 
of wood suitable for purposes of propagation at the base of each flowering 
shoot. This wood is harder and more mature than the wood close to the 
base of the bud, and for that reason is better suited for making cuttings. 
With plants which are blooming profusely it not uncommonly happens that 


94 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 


the whole length of the flowering shoot is needed to satisfy the market de- 
mand for long-stemmed roses, and the supply of suitable wood from which 
to propagate the next season’s stock of plants is greatly lessened, or it may 
be entirely cut off. But there is always a greater or less supply of “blind 
wood.” Consequently, why not use it for purposes of propagation? If the 
plants grown from blind wood do not perpetuate the tendency of the parent 
shoots (which are non-flowering), then there can be no objection to its use 
for the purpose of propagating the next season’s stock. But if it does per- 
petuate the tendency of the parent stem, then there is danger. 

In order that more definite statements may be made on this point, the 
writer has for five years carried on a test with rose plants from the two types 
of wood above mentioned. Before stating the results of this experiment, 
however, I wish to call to mind a few of the experiments which have been 
made which throw light upon the point in question. 

Do cuttings tend to perpetuate the peculiarities of the parent branch from 
which they are taken? To answer this, I need hardly do more than call 
attention to the fact that propagation by cuttings is employed almost exclu- 
sively for the perpetuation of cultural varieties of all fruit and ornamental 
plants which are capable of being grown from cuttings. Many annual plants, 
however, come true from seed and varietal differences, while not so constant 
as in plants grown from cuttings are, nevertheless, sufficiently close for all 
commercial purposes. If we were to go a step farther, we might be justified 
in considering the various processes of budding and grafting as identical in 
their resulis with that of propagation by cuttings. 

Budding and grafting are in reality processes of division, the same as is 
the growing of plants from cuttings. In all three of these modes of repro- 
duction the results are so constant that we never stop to question the fact; 
yet we constantly commit the blunder of ignoring qualities quite as important 
as the varietal peculiarity itself. In fruit growing, nurserymen propagate from 
a Baldwin tree, whether it has ever borne fruit or not, simply because they 
know it to be a Baldwin. Yet in the face of this we are being taught by our 
advance agents that each tree has an individuality, and, in fact, that each 
branch and bud is in its peculiar way different from every other branch or 
bud, ever upon the same tree. ' If we accept these statements as true, and we 
have no good reason to doubt them, then the peculiar tendencies of the plant, 
or of a branch of a plant, may be expected to play a more or less important 
part in determining the behavior of the plant or plants propagated from it. 
Orchardists have observed these differences, and are slowly coming to exer- 
cise greater care in the selection of cions. This precaution not only influences 
fruit production, but it has been clearly pointed out by Smith, Fairchild and 
others the health of plants from which buds and cions are taken measures to 
a very marked degree the health and longevity of the resulting tree. 

If we find these differences among plants grown from buds and cions, 
quite as marked peculiarities may be anticipated in plants grown from cut- 
tings. Upon this point recorded observations are exceedingly meagre, but 
some light can be gathered from the work published by myself in the Ninth 
Annual Report of the West Virginia Agricultural Experiment Station, From 


IMPROVEMENT OF ROSES BY BUD SELECTION. 


A—Blind Wood. B—Flowering Wood. 


96 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 


these studies it is evident that varieties are perpetuated true to type by cut- 
tings through many generations. A single exception in the case of the tomata 
entering to break the constancy of the results. Not only are general varietal 
differences retained, but acquired characters also, temporarily, at least, as is 
shown in the cuttings of grape, poplars, currants, etc., grown in Northern and 
Southern latitudes. For a specific example of this, nothing could be more 
conclusive than the results shown by New York grown potatoes, given one 
season’s outing in Maine, for, when brought back to New York the next year, 
they retained their Maine tendency towards increased vigor and yield.* 

Trees propagated from fruitful trees are themselves more fruitful. Pota- 
toes grown a year in the North become more prolific. Plants grown from 
cuttings, taken from Northern and Southern grown parents of the same 
species, retain the characteristics of their parents. What, then, should be ex- 
pected from plants grown from blind and flowering wood? To anticipate the 
results of the test I will state that they accord with and justify the logical 
conclusion which would follow from the particular instances above set forth. 
In this test rose plants propagated from “flowering wood” gave on the aver- 
age 29 4/9 blooms per plant for the season, while the “blind wood” plants 
produced 11% flowers per plant. 


DETAILS OF THE EXPERIMENT. 


In the Spring of 1897, when the time for making rose cuttings had ar- 
rived, cuttings were made from both flowering and blind wood of each of the 
varieties of rose then in the house. The cuttings were all made on the same 
day, placed in the same cutting frame in contiguous rows. In all respects the 
conditions for the several cuttings were as nearly the same as it is possible to 
obtain in a greenhouse. 

On February 16 the cutting plants were examined and potted, with the 
following results: 


Total No. No. No. 

Variety. No. Rooted. Calloused. Dead. 
Brides tlower. sascicaasa- = no ero eee 15 9 6 
Brides Dimd 2 ston sca banky ae eer 20 9 9 2 
Bridesmaid. tower tiene seerices caemcne ) 5 4 
Bridesmaids blind jane..oc0 eee 23 15 8 > 
Perlevdes, Jardins, tlowef-.se ceili rere 15 2 11 2 
Renlesdessardinsssblind > aeee teins. 17 7 i 3 
Mine. Hoste, flowet:.../:52t2.02as os 13 5 8 
Mine. Floste? blind? -acere o-..6 oer tets 9 1 8 
Meteor, Hower .ack see occ pe eee 18 11 3 4 
Meteor)* blind: + ies 6225.42 eee 5 4 1 


From this it would appear that there is little difference in the tendency 
to form roots between the cuttings made from flowering and from blind wood. 
From this time until the plants were set in their permanent places upon 
the greenhouse benches (August 19, 1897), they were given like treatment. 
They were grown in pots in a sunny greenhouse, and all received the same 
number of shifts, and like attention in regard to soil, water and food supply. 


*See Ninth Annual Report of West Virginia Agricultural Experiment Station. 


IMPROVEMENT OF ROSES BY BUD SELECTION. 97 


As the plants were planted upon the benches August 19, the following note 
was made: “At this time there is little difference in the size and general vigor 
of the plants from the blind and flowering wood cuttings.” 

As soon as the plants became established in the soil on the bench growth 
on all was vigorous, and while there was a marked difference in the growth 
and general behavior of different varieties, there was no notable difference in 
vigor between the blind wood and flowering wood of the same variety. 

The bloom record of the several lots is quite different, however, as is 
shown in the accompanying table, which gives the total number of flowers 
produced between December 1, 1897, and July 1, 1898: 


No. oO. 
Variety. Plants. Blossoms. Average. 
Pee RORNET ees caret s Misia s CARs has ita d Ae’. 13 242 18 8/13 
RMP AR SoM 2h eat e bs 00s Ahn oS Gaon 6 Sina iw BIO Sle 18 32 779 
reer) SONVIET: (seid sw Sicseo Saatelaid neyeiase Sie elele miele is 8 192 24 
em riaa Ce RIG oes 2 skies Semiere oh cle a ge ae a coelse 3 56 18 2/3 
emeades Patdins, MOWEr. 26a. ecco sow dae so% ss 8 141 17% 
epemdesmiardins, ‘blinds... 250-5 ss; cc sare'ac's smacrals 14 224 16 
Mine: Hoste, flower......:.5..5.- ere rr eee 7 204 29 1/7 
MUAEMMETIISES, OLUC s, .sleiek oss ode civ eaig sic vies ¥o0 39% « 9 176 19 5/9 
Pret peti: slain dikes vcpencje'sne's Mantes osc eh oe eee 44 488 tits 1/14. 
Mikal os MO Webr i rib. nse sro. slides ial oaaie hs 35 779 22 9/35 


As is seen from the table, the product of the flowering wood plants in 
this one year’s test was more than double that of the blind wood plants, 
amounting in this particular instance to 156 per cent. gain in favor of the 
flowering wood plants. 

During the forcing season of 1898 and 1899, extending over the same 
period as in 1897 and 1898, i. e., from December 1 to May 31, inclusive, the 
{wo varieties retained in the experiment produced bloom as follows: 


No. No. 
1898-99. Plants. Blossoms. Average. 
LG, DG WAG es San Gere CO NaT Ooo eco em ee 13 113 8 9/13 
eee IBV Gee a Ae erat nciect nee. sek 3» 15 253 16 13/15 
eaten cantina To NTT as oat tha ee fice nine a 'sido'6.0, 0.00 he's 8 119 14% 
Reema GIAU OWED. aoc de Nerdales cide aoe veces ses if 210 17% 


The results here recorded show the superiority of the flowering wood over 
the blind wood plants. But strange as it may appear, the difference between 
the flower-producing power of the plants grown from flowering wood and 
from blind wood is less than in the first generation, and this, despite the fact 
that the plants used in this test were grown from cuttings selected from 
plants used in the previous years’ tests. 


HISTORY OF THE SECOND YEAR PLANTS. 

The flowering wood plants used in the tests of 1898 and 1899 were 
grown from cuttings selected from the base of flowering shoots produced by 
the plants previously grown from flowering wood. This course was followed 
in order to test the effect of constant selection in one direction, the idea being 
to secure plants with the maximum blooming capacity. The experiment was 


98 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 


to test a theory which may be stated as follows: If flowering wood from 
commercial plants is capable of producing plants able to throw more than 
double the number of blooms produced from similar plants grown from blind 
wood, is it not possible by selecting flowering wood from plants grown from 
flowering wood to increase the flower-producing tendency in a distinct strain 
of forcing plants? Beginning with blind and flowering wood from good com- 
mercial plants of Bride and Bridesmaid in the Spring of 1897, plants were 
grown and flowered in the Winter of 1897 and 1898; from these, as above 
stated, cuttings were taken and flowered during the Winter of 1898-1899; and 
from these, in turn, came the flowering plants for 1899 and 1900, and so on 
for five years; the flowering plants being from flowering plants of the previous 
season in each and every case. The blind wood plants were treated in exactly 
the same way, blind wood cuttings from blind wood plants produced the blind 
wood plants for the succeeding season, and so on for the five years over which 
the experiment has now extended. The following records for each of the 
years 1899-1900, 1900-1901, and 1901-1902 serve to show how constantly the 
flowering wood plants retain their supremacy over those grown from blind 
wood: 
Record from December 1 to May 31, Inclusive. 


No. No. 
1899-1900, Plants. Blossoms. Average. 
Bride biti essere coe ee eee ee ee 15 190 Ie 8) 
Bride. flower =o. i. ve)... Les e Re eee 18 192 10 2/3 
Braaesimiaia *pistd: of et ee, Cnet eee eee ean 18 137 7 11/18 
Bridesmatd:, Hower s.24- <r eeee 18 220 12 2/9 
Record from December 1 to May 31, Inclusive. 
No. No. 
1900-1901. Plants. Blossoms. Average. 
ride. itis pete ey ane sae aoe tas ee eee eee 17 59 3 8/17 
Brides howeme acme, Aer ee ee ee 4 110 271% 
Beidesmaig:» Bigg)... 3% 3s ceo ese eee See 16 67 4 3/16 
Bridesmaid: MOWED. ie-toe eee we mee ene eee nee 14 80 5 5/7 
Record from December 1 to May 31, Inclusive. 
No. No. 
1901-1902. Plants. Blossoms. Average. 
Bride: blind’. hea Gn se Pep ee ee eee 14 80 5 5/7 
Bride whower gach? her encn eee eee ee 16 124 7% 
Bridesmaid: Vhlind:. 12>... teh fate eae eos 16 98 6% 
Bridesmaid: flower:!s 300s. eee eee ee 12 136 11 1/3 


RECORD OF PLANTS SECOND YEAR ON BENCH. 
Record from December 1 to May 31, Inclusive. 


No. No. 
1900-1901. Plants. Blossoms. Average. 
Bride: blind: .n..0 toca noe Oe ee ee eee 14 193 13 1/14 
Bride, flowet | an ouis4 wa hose oie OCR ee 8 223 27% 
Bridesmiaid.. blind: « ... Aiuto. eee eee 10 138 13 4/5 
Bridesmaid. flower, jace.c afelaas ee ee 12 183 15% 


*Cutting plants set on bench in July. 


IMPROVEMENT OF ROSES BY BUD SELECTION. 99 


But, strange as it may seem, there is no apparent cumulative effect from 
the selection of cuttings from flowering wood plants. Neither is there any 
marked degradation from the continuous use of blind wood. True, there is a 
constant falling off in the average number of flowers produced per plant from 
the first season to the close of the experiment, but the result is not more 
marked in the case of the blind wood plants than with the flowering wood 
plants. 

The following table, which summarizes the results for the five years, is 
of interest in that it shows but a single departure from the rule that flowering 
wood produces plants which are more floriferous than those grown from 
blind wood: 


AVERAGE NUMBER FLOWERS PER PLANT FOR SEASON—DEC. | TO MAY 31, INC. 


Bride Bride Brides- Brides- 
Year. (Blind) (Flower) maid (B) maid (F) 
IPSHNT/=O18) Uy cea Aa ne ae 1.88 19.84 19 28.62 
We aE a 5 xa cba nt os sis aia ue 3 8.66 16.86 14.87 17.5 
Pee ENE eats 5 cha choose stars.) ees OOD 10.66 7.62 12.22 
NQWDADIL. Gag. Gio Retae see acer ee ee 12.21 27.87 13.8 15.25 
Dee omnes.) a liaee's Sh Shei 5.71 7.15 6.12 11.33 
Pen TOL WD VEALS:: . 4. ass cess 8.26 16.59 12.29 16.98 


This is seen in the case of the blind wood plants of Bride grown during 
the forcing season of 1899 and 1900, in which year this particular lot of plants 
produced an average of two blooms per plant more than did the flowering 
plants of the same variety. The table is of interest also in showing the ratio 
of the flowering wood plants to the blind wood plants based on the average 
number of flowers produced per plant during the season. In the case of 
Bride the blind plants averaged 8.26 blooms per plant, while the fowering 
plants produced 16.59 blooms per plant, or a little more than twice as many. 
In the case of Bridesmaid, the difference is very decided, but not so great as 
with Bride. Bridesmaid blind produces an average of 12.29 blooms per plant, 
while the “flowering wood” plants of the same variety produced 16.98, or one 
and one-third times as many as the blind wood plants. 


COMPARISON OF FIRST AND SECOND YEAR PLANTS. 

In the course of these observations a cultural problem of some moment 
presented itself, and as it could be brought under observation without de- 
ranging the observations on the production of bloom from blind and flowering 
wood plants, the experiments were planned to admit of retaining a number 
of plants upon the benches a second season in order to compare their flower- 
producing power with plants grown from cuttings and placed on the benches 
in July for the succeeding Winter’s flower supply. Accordingly 14 blind and 8 
flowering wood Bride, with 10 blind and 12 flowering wood Bridesmaid plants 
were retained on the middle bench of the house used continuously in this 
test. These plants were severely pruned in August, after having been kept 
quite dry and inactive during July. After pruning at least one-half of the 
soil of the bench was replaced by fresh compost. The earth was removed 
from on top the roots and between the plants and replaced with fresh earth. 
After this treatment they were slowly started into growth and the record of 


100 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 


flower production began in October. The following table will serve to show 
the bloom record of these plants: 


Bride. Bridesmaid. 

Month. Blind. Flower. Blind. Flower. 

IDLO EHS ears ae Moe eee Sane Pia 57 49 51 49 
November cat wia.cs. sm oc aaete cuttin: 25 29 15 20 
Mecembensa usecase ore seh ee 39 36 33 33 
AeA eat Sipe, BPM cx Be in pe a a Aas 14 18 9 19 
Ie Dnilatnyect tras cesses sister ociioehee 28 26 18 29 
Mian clitar satan fy. eitecnsye ceemenare see conor ats 46 47 26 41 
Ade Given yore oe one te oo 39 47 34 33 
IL i phate rs patent ty ear AES Ae mee aterm 2k 27 49 18 28 
MOA See eee eae oi: 275 301 204 252 
Average pert platit. ict K..cacdecces 19.6 37.6 20.4 21 


In the case of plants grown from cuttings struck March 11, and planted 
on the benches in July, the record was as follows: 


Bride. Bridesmaid. 

Month. Blind. Flower. Blind. Flower. 

October Was: Sas cere cue acs 4 10 7 5 
INovermiberin crete Sen een ers 6 5 1 10 
Wecember sae eictarsie ae eee ero re : 2 5 2 
amtlatyet ctr wer cuactis ree oe 4 8 3 7 
ITED TUA TV tortets.c San cities Bares axe ease 7 12 of tl 
IVPARCING sash fosters tes hate tae eee rors 8 11 12 16 
VANS DY GT Ka RpedeN eee oe RoE tats isi cin Ric eee ee 19 4() 22 29 
Iiaiyinsetscetucraats ttt ceiscn cance EAT rtemhoe 21 Biel 18 19 
hotals Soe eee eee 69 125 75 95 
Average No. per plant............. 4.05 oleco 4.68 6.7 


From the comparison of the average number of flowers produced per 
plant from October 1 to May 31, inclusive, in each of the two sets, it is evident 
that there is little difference between the two, but upon comparing the monthly 
flower product of the two it at once becomes apparent that the two-year-old 
plants produced their crop in the Fall and early Winter, while the cutting 
plants produced the heaviest bloom later in the season. One must, therefore, 
be guided by the demands of market. If a heavy crop before the holidays is 
the end to be achieved, then year-old plants are desirable, but if the rose 
market is more profitable from the first of February to the first of June, the 
cutting plants will give best return. While these results are interesting in 
showing the value of strong year-old plants, we do not consider that the 
record of the one season, during which this comparison was made, sufficient 
to be taken as a basis for extensive commercial undertakings. With the tests 
of blind and flowering wood plants, however, the case is different, and the re- 
sults may be considered conclusive. 

DEDUCTIONS. 

It is clear from the results of these tests that the tendencies manifested in 
a branch are perpetuated from generation to generation in plants propagated 
by sexual processes. 


IMPROVEMENT OF ROSES BY BUD SELECTION. 101 


It is equally demonstrated that cumulative results are not to be expected 
by selecting parts showing like tendencies through successive generations. 
The flowering habit of plants which themselves had been produced from 
flowering wood was not increased, even in the fifth generation, over what it 
was in the first. On the other hand, plants repeatedly propagated from blind 
wood through five successive generations were not markedly less floriferous 
in the fifth than in the first generation. 

In both plants propagated from blind and from flowering wood, there was 
a slight tendency towards lessened flower production. This may be accounted 
for in that the stock from which the plants were propagated each season had 
been grown and forced under artificial conditions, and no attention was given 
to selecting cuttings from the strongest plants. The commercial side of this 
experiment is, of course, the most important one from the standpoint of the 
practical grower. It is clearly more economical for the florist to produce his 
plants each season from blind wood, and since there is no cumulative effect 
from such a procedure, the plants so produced are not necessarily less flori- 
ferous than the parent stock. But where bloom rather than stock plants is the 
end sought the tests above recorded are emphatic in declaring the superiority 
in this respect of plants grown from flowering wood. A rose grower can well 
afford to send short-stemmed roses to market during the months of January 
and February, if by so doing he can secure sufficient flowering wood for pro- 
pagating purposes to insure a stand of flowering wood plants for the pro- 
duction of the succeeding crop. 

L. H. Bailey: I would like to ask Prof. Corbett about the correlation of the vigor 
of the plant with the length of flower stem, with the productivity, and also the date of 
maturity from cuttings, whether one is later than the other, as a rule. 

L. C. Corbett: There was practically no difference as far as the vegetative vigor of 
the two sets of plants was concerned; one was practically as vigorous as the other. 
Under the treatment which we gave them—they were planted in the same house and 
grown under substantially the same conditions—we could detect no difference in the 
vegetative vigor of the two sets. I think in nearly every case the flowering plants came 


into bloom a little earlier than the blind plants, but throughout the five years I could 
detect practically no difference in the vegetative vigor of the two. 


The following paper was read by J. B. Norton: 


IMPROVEMENT OF OATS BY BREEDING 
Jesse B. Norton, Plant Breeding Laboratory, U. S. Department of Agriculture. 


While cereal breeding has received a great impetus in the last few years, 
due to the results reached by some of our well-known plant breeders, as the 
Garton Bros., Vilmorin, Hays, Saunders, etc., little has been started in the 
line of oat improvement. For those who are interested in increasing the nitro- 
gen content of cereals the oat promises most, for it is richer in protein than 
wheat or corn, hulled oats averaging about 14 per cent., while other cereals 
average about II per cent. 

While there are a large number of named varieties in cultivation, it is very 
hard to trace the origin of most of them, many of the names being simply 
trade names applied to old varieties in order to meet the demand for novelties. 
Sometimes a good variety has been found growing in fields of other crops, and 
some one, noticing its good qualities, has introduced it under an appropriate 
name. The Potato oat is cited as an example, and also the Washington oat, 
introduced some years ago by Carman. 

Seed growers and seedsmen have done most of the selection work that has 
been done with oats, and reports on the greater part of this work have never 
been published. In fact, the literature on the subject is very meagre, and as 
far as practical permanent work goes, almost no literature can be found. 

The work of the Garton Bros., of England, has been written up by 
several scientific writers’ and is well known to most plant breeders, but this 
paper would not be complete without a short review of their work on oats. 
Beginning work in 180, they secured their first successful oat crosses in 1885. 
About 1887 they commenced to use naked oats as the female parent to avoid 
the mechanical difficulties in the way of crossing encountered in the hulled 
varieties. The Gartons have crossed and recrossed the existing types of oats 
until they have compound crosses containing the blood of a large number of 
parent varieties. Speir® gives the following parentage for some of the new 
varieties they have fixed and introduced: 

Tartar King. Black Tartarian, White Tartarian, and White Canadian. 

Pioneer. Black Tartarian, Scottish Potato, Waterloo, and White August. 

Waverley. Scottish Potato, Naked Oat of China, White Tartarian, and 
Flanders Yeilow. 


1Carruthers, Wm. Cross-fertilization of Cereals. Journ. Roy. Ag. Soc., p. 684. Vol. 
IV (893). 

2Speir, John. The Produce of Old and New Varieties of Oats. Trans. Highl. Agr. 
Hoc. ser, 5. Vol. Xi: 


104 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 


The work of Garton Bros. is being continued, but of recent years few 
1eports have been published in scientific journals. Dr. William Saunders, of 
the Central Experimental Farm of Canada, has originated a large number of 
oat varieties in connection with his extensive work in breeding cereals, etc., 
a report of which is given in his paper before this conference. More detailed 
accounts can be found in the annuai reports of the work of the Experimental 
Farm. Rimpan’ gives four reliable cases of natural crosses between distinct 
types of oats. In one of these cases the progeny was grown for several years 
and a number of forms selected. The parent varieties were Hallett’s Canadian, 
a common white oat, and Black Tartarian, a black side oat. In 1879 they were 
plnted in two plats side by side. In 1880 a brown hulled plant was noticed 
in the Canadian grown from seed of the last season. In 1881 the seed of this 
plant produced a number of intermediate types, some of which were fixed by 
selection during the following seasons. Rimpan gives an excellent plate show- 
ing the varying progeny of this cross. 

Thos. Jamieson’ records in a recent volume of the Proceedings of the 
Agricultural Research Association of Scotland some experiments in the natural 
crossing of oats, but since he records his crosses as showing in the color of the 
hulls the same season that the cross was supposed to have been made, his 
results must be regarded as unreliable. But the fact that the progeny of sup- 
posed crosses varied widely the next year makes it possible that the cross 
might have been made the year before he started his work. 

Fairchild’ in a recent number of Experiment Station Record discusses the 
breeding work of the Station for Plant Breeding at Svalof, Sweden, under the 
direction of Dr. Nilsson, and mentions the work being carried on with oats, 
but does not go into details. The work at this Station is being done entirely 
by selection, Dr. Nilsson finding that the natural variation gives sufficient 
opportunity for selection. One of the interesting experiments being carried 
on at this Station is the selection of pure strains of the different varieties, 
the separation being made on botanical characters. The selected strains show 
great uniformity, but are said by some who have grown them not to be so 
satisfactory as the original variety composed of three or more mixed strains. 

The above mentioned papers include most of the scientific articles on oat 
breeding, but numerous popular articles can be found in agricultural journals, 
etc. Oat breeding and adaptation are being carried on by some of the State 
Experiment Stations in this country, but few published results of these experi- 
ments are to be had. 

The work in oat breeding was taken up by the Plant Breeding Laboratory 
of the Department of Agriculture in the Spring of 1902, and though it has 
been carried on only one season, some of the results in crossing and experience 
in selection are thought to be worth recording. The literature on the subject 
and the past experience of the writer all tended toward the conclusion that the 
artificial pollination of oat flowers is very difficult and attended with a very 
small percentage of successes as compared with wheat. 


1Rimpan. Kreuzungproducte landwirtschaftliche Kulturpflanzen. Landw. Jahrb. 
Band 20. 1891. p. 364. 

?Jamieson, Thos. Natural Cross-fertilization and Change of Seed. Proc. Ag. Re- 
search Assoc. 1897. p 31-50. 

’Fairchild, David G. Exp. Sta. Record. XIII. No. 9. 1902. p. 814. 


IMPROVEMENT OF OATS. 105 


In 1898 the Kansas Station made a number of crosses of oats, but later 
the work was given up, owing to the work on corn and wheat crowding out 
that on all the minor cereals. This work, in which the writer was interested, 
yielded only about 5 per cent. of successful crosses owing to the method fol- 
lowed, being similar to that which had proved successful with wheat. In this 
work a nearly ripe but usually unruptured anther was taken from the male 
parent and placed inside the emasculated and immature flower of the female 
parent. The pendent position of the spikelet of oats allowed the anther to 
drop out when the flower matured and opened without coming in contact with 
the receptive stigma. 

Garton Bros. speak of the difficulty of obtaining successful crosses in 
oats, due to the difficulty of manipulation and of the removal of the anthers 
without injuring the delicate stigma. They claim to have obviated this diffi- 
culty by using naked or hull-less oats as the female parent. In my experi- 
ments this year the hull-less oats proved very much more difficult to manage 
than the ordinary type. 

At the beginning of the past season (1902), before aes crossing 
work in the experiments carried on by the Plant Breeding Laboratory, a study 
was made of the oat flower, its time of blooming, structure, etc., and the : 
methods used in crossing were based on the knowledge acquired by this study. 
As a result excellent work was done, and the artificial crossing of oats can 
now be carried out with as great, or even greater, assurance of success as that 
of any other plant. With reasonable care and skill it is possible to obtain 
nearly 100 per cent. of successful crosses. 

The spikelet of the common oat is made up of from one to three flowers, 
each enclosed in two tough glumes that make the hull of the ripened grain. 
These flowers usually fit closely together and are enclosed in two thinner and 
larger glumes, called empty glumes to distinguish them from the flowering 
glumes. Each spikelet is hung on a slender pedicel instead of being sessile on 
a central stem, as in wheat, barley, etc. This fact adds to the difficulty in 
working with oats, for each separate spikelet worked must be grasped firmly 
between the thumb and fingers while it is being emasculated or pollinated, and 
it is probable that this handling reduces the vitality of the flower considerably. 
The flowers in a spikelet mature on different days and vary in size, the basal 
one being largest and blooming first, the second flower being weaker and often 
much smaller and blooming one or two days later. In cases where there is a 
third flower it is still smaller, often being rudimentary, and blooming a day 
or two later than the second one. The oat flower proper is similar to that of 
wheat, being composed of three stamens and a one-ovuled pistil with a two- 
parted feathery stigma. In the wild oat (Avena fatua) and in many cultivated 
varieties the flower opens out wide, allowing the double stigma to project on 
each side and the anthers to fall down as far as the lengthened filaments will 


let them. In oats of this type it is entirely possible that natural crossing takes 


place, but in many of the varieties of the present day the flowers do not open 
wide enough to allow the stigma to protrude at all, and many flowers even 
keep the anthers inside the glumes. In others the flower often opens before 


- the spikelet has pushed out beyond the sheath of the upper leaf. Again, in 


many varieties the anthers dehisce some hours before the flower opens. Most 


106 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 


persons who have worked on the problem have come to the conclusion that 
natural crossing in the oat is rare, but to test the point a large number of 
flowers were emasculated and left uncovered under favorable conditions for 
crossing, but no seed was obtained, while at the same time artificial crosses 
were averaging about 75 per cent. of successes. 

The method of making artificial oat crosses during the season was in 
general as follows: From six to eight nearly mature spikelets were selected 
from the upper part of one of the heads of the desired female parent; the 
basal flower of each was opened, and the three anthers were removed with a 
fine pair of forceps, care being taken not to injure the young stigma. The 
remaining flowers of the spikelets were cut away and the emasculated flowers 
carefully closed. The neighboring spikelets on the head were removed and 
the emasculated flowers tied up together in strong tissue paper for protection 
from the omnipresent English sparrow. This paper was held on with fine 
copper wire, to which was attached a small marking tag bearing the date. 
This work was always done in the morning, at which time the anthers that 
would open in the afternoon could be grasped with the forceps without being 
ruptured. 

The work of pollination is best done at from I to 3.30 p. m., before which 
time it is hard to find ripe anthers, while later than this most of the pollen has 
already escaped. Only fresh pollen was used. Flowers emasculated during 
the morning of one’ day were pollinated the afternoon of the following day, 
when practically all of the stigmas were in the best receptive condition. On 
pollinating, the emasculated flowers were opened and a liberal quantity of 
pollen dusted on the stigma from a dehiscing anther freshly removed from a 
selected plant of the desired male parent, and the flowers were again closed 
and all re-enclosed in the tissue paper. A serial number was placed on the 
label and under this number in the field notebook was placed all the necessary 
data in regard to the cross. 

Dry, hot weather is fatal to good results with artificial oat pollination. 
Several hundred crosses made during a dry, hot spell in June yielded less than 
5 per cent. of grain, while the work during a protracted cool period of weather 
that followed this yielded above 75 per cent. of successful crosses. 

Premature pollination does not kill the stigma of the oat flower, as in 
some plants, neither does it prevent fecundation, as flowers emasculated and 
pollinated two or three days before maturity set seed. 

In oat crossing the time of blooming is naturally important and must be 
taken into account. While with the great majority of grasses the flowers 
open in the morning hours, the oat flowers open only in the evening or after- 
noon. On an average the blooming period extends from 3.30 to 6 p. m., but 
under exceptional circumstances flowers will open as early as Io a. m., while 
in some varieties by 2 p. m. almost all of the stamens that would ripen that 
day were ruptured within the flower. The flowers close again before dark, 
and as a rule do not open again, but some few unfertilized stigmas can be 
found protruding the next day. The unfertilized stigmas retain their fresh 
appearance for a long time, sometimes for ever a week or ten days, but rarely 
set seed when pollinated more than four days after maturity. 

The work in selection is being carried on along the same iines as the 


IMPROVEMENT OF OATS. 107 


selection of corn and cotton, and the same general forms of blanks are used for 
making records. Numerous varieties were grown, and those that came nearest 
to the different ideals were saved for selection, while those that seemed to be 
inferior were discarded. 

As yet the work is confined to the Arlington Experimental Farm, near 
Washington, but later on will be carried to other oat regions. One important 
problem taken up is the selection of a good winter oat, the qualities to be 
selected for being increased resistance to cold winters, rust resistance, in- 
creased yield, strength of straw, size of grain, reduced percentage of hull and 
the percentage of empty hulls, and the absence of awns. This will be done 
by means of the score card system used with cotton and corn. The best 
yielding plants, with a small percentage of rust and showing a tendency not 
to lodge, were selected from the nursery and kept for further planting and 
further selection the next year. Acre plats of a number of winter varieties have 
been sown for selection next season, and as the Experimental Farm is just 
on the border of the winter oat region, the killing out of the weak plants by 
cold will aid materially in the selecting of hardy plants. The individual plant 
is taken as the basis of selection, and large plats of single grain hills are 
sown for this work. The plats of the past season were planted with a six-inch 
space each way, but this fall they are being planted six inches apart in rows 
with an interval of eighteen inches between rows, affording an opportunity for 
close observation and also for cultivation. The individual plant system is 
absolutely necessary for good work in selection on account of the difference in 
stooling, evenness of ripening, etc. In the Virginia Gray winter plats a differ- 
ence of three weeks was noticed in the ripening period of individuals planted 
singly, while in drilled plats it was impossible to judge earliness except by the 
ripening of single heads. 

One of the greatest annoyances is the difficulty of procuring pure seed. 
Among all the samples planted last Spring but one or two were what could 
be called pure. Most of the varieties are made up of two or more strains 
varying in character. Often there are what appear to be mixtures of almost 
all the types of oats in one lot, sometimes to such an extent that it is difficult 
to tell to what the name is to be applied. Under these conditions it has been 
necessary to go over the lots and carefully sort out the seed for next season. 
All of these selections will be planted next spring, and their progeny will be 
selected, and in this manner pure types will be maintained for comparison 
and to obtain known parents for crossing. 

On account of the complaint of many stablemen that most of the oats on 
the market contain a large percentage of empty hulls, a selection has been 
started for a type in which all of the flowers set seed even under adverse 
circumstances. The rust-proof varieties seem to offer the best type for this 
selection under the conditions that prevail on the Arlington Farm. 

Another selection started is that of reselecting some of the new varieties 
originated in Europe to better fit the new conditions in this country. These 
varieties, so far as tested, seem to sport, or break up into different types. 
Garton’s Tartar King was planted last spring and studied in order to find out 
if possible whether it was thoroughly fixed in type. The plants were prac- 
tically uniform in leaf and stem characters, but varied in some cases, quite 


108 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 


widely in the inflorescence and grains, and seeming to revert to the parent 
types. 

In the work of oat breeding the idea is to get oat varieties that surpass 
in some certain combination of qualities any other variety at present in exist- 
ence, and all the methods known to breeders will be used to reach these 
results. The addition of new varieties without any superior merit over our 
present forms must be regarded as a mere waste of time. 


William Saunders: I decline to accept the parentage of the Big Four oats. They 
originated with John A. Salisbury, of Wisconsin, and any one who has read Mr. 
Salisbury’s work would know that they might expect anything preposterous from such a 
source. We have only had those oats in cultivation two years, and during that time I 
am quite sure we have never sent a kernei of it to anybody. We should, however, 
have been glad to have sent to the department, if we had known any such 
work was in progress, some of the results of our work during the past ten or 
twelve years. We have been working on the oat, and the results have been re- 
ported every year in the annual reports of our farms, which are supplied liberaliy 
to the department, to the libraries, and to all the officers who care to have them. We 
have been going over many of the lines that Professor Norton has indicated as those that 
he proposed to follow in the next few years. We have originated probably forty or fifty 
crosses, which have been brought down by selection to about twenty or thirty. in our 
crosses we have crossed the white oat and the black oat, using the Black Tartarian as 
one sex and the white oat for the other sex, and we have produced oats white, dun 
colored and black, all from the same cross; and by selection and breeding, any particular 
feature in connection with those varieties can be perpetuated and the oat made a distinct 
and permanent variety. Our experiments began about the same time as Mr. Garton’s, to 
which reference has been made, and have been widely published, and I am really surprised 
that Mr. Norton has never heard of the work that has been going on in Canada, seeing 
that we print our publications and distribute them so profusely anywhere throughout the 
world, and many copies are sent to the United States. Now we have crossed the branch- 
ing oat with the sided oat, and we have produced half-sided oats and sided oats apd 
branching oats, all from the same parents. We have also crossed thin skinned oats with 
thick skinned oats, with the idea of trying to produce thinner skinned varieties. All 
these have been reported on from year to year I think for the past twelve years pretty 
fully, and at the same time we have carried on a large amount of work in the selection of 
oats. We have obtained varieties from all parts of the world, growing them side by side 
with these cross-fertilized forms, so that we might ascertain their actual value, and I 
should be very pleased to send Mr. Norton samples of any or all of these cross bred that 
he might like to include in his work; and I regret that I did not know that Mr. Norton 
was carrying on work in this line, or I should have been glad to volunteer material and 
information. 


D. G. Fairchild: It does not seem quite fair in reviewing the really remarkable 
work of the Swedish investigators to overlook the, to me, very interesting contribution of 
Dr. Nilsson, of Sweden, who has been carrying on experiments with oats for the past 
ten years, and he and his predecessors have really done some very remarkable work. Oi 
course, their publications have been in Swedish, but no mention has been made of this 
work of Dr. Nilsson and his predecessors. I had the pleasure of looking over his very 
interesting station in Sweden several years ago, shortly after the Garton brothers had 
inaugurated their experiments, and several points were made clear to me regarding the 
work which have not been brought out here in these meetings. In connection with his 
work on barleys, he discovered a means of very easily determining the purity of the seed 
as regards variety. He divided the barley up into different strains which had characters 
that appeared on the seeds, so that he was able not only to determine the actual purity 
as it is generally done by means of seeds, but he could tell whether certain botanical 
strains of barley were mixed in a certain sample. This had to me a very material prac- 
tical value. The barley, as you know, is used almost exclusively for brewing purposes, 
and uniformity is as valuable a character in it as anything else. He found a_correlation 
of characters, that is to say, correlated with certain seed characters were certain qualities 


IMPROVEMENT OF OATS. 109 


adapted specially for brewing purposes, so he was able to sift out from a sample of barley 
that was submitted to him not only the wheat seeds and all other classes of impurities, 
but to determine the percentage of mixed varieties of barley. In this way he was able, 
by a number of years of experimentation, to get barley remarkably constant in character 
both as regards its malting properties and this correlated character of the ligule which 
he called my attention to. And it does seem to me that any one who has an opportunity 
of visiting Sweden, and many of us make Sweden the place for resort in the summer time, 
will find Dr. Nilsson’s breeding station a most remarkable and instructive example of 
what Swedes are doing in this line. 

W. M. Hays: Having originated a good many varieties of oats, I don’t know how 
many, and having found that basing the variety on one or just two other plants, we have 
no difficulty whatever with types such as have been shown us, it seems quite practicable 
to assume that the oat is almost entirely self-pollinated, and to breed the oats you could 
make hybrids and make new hybrids, basing them on one or on few other plants. 

The Chair: I have read with a great deal of interest the accounts of the work done 
in Canada at the experimental farms to which Dr. Saunders has referred as contained 
in the reports of their work, and, while there has been a great deal of interest, I have 
been specially interested in the reports on oats. It appears to me that there may be 
very great improvement on the lines indicated. 


Tul 


a 


The following paper by E. G. Hill was read by P. O’Mara: 


ON BREEDING FLORISTS’ FLOWERS 


E. G. Hill, Richmond, Ind. 


I have seldom taken up a subject with more reluctance than the one 
assigned me for this paper—not that I am unwilling to contribute to the 
interest of this meeting and to further the purpose of this congress, which 
is a most praiseworthy one; but my data are so meagre, and the results 
obtained so different from those aimed at, that I shrink from detailing them. 
I have had a good deal of experience and have persevered in spite of many 
disappointments in cross-fertilizing roses, carnations, chrysanthemums, gera- 
niums and begonias, as well as other plants; but it is no exaggeration to 
state that out of many thousands of carefully fertilized seedlings in the 
classes named the percentage showing advancement over the seed parents 


has been very small indeed. 

The hybridizer tries before effecting a cross to picture in his mind the 
result of a union between the varieties that he selects; for the seed parent he 
chooses perhaps a variety with a flower of ideal form for florists’ purposes; 
the color also is fine, but it has the defects, it may be, of a weak constitution 
or an ungainly habit, or other fault; he is so desirous of perpetuating the fine 
form and lovely color while securing vigor of growth that he selects a 
strong, shapely grower with as many other good qualities as possible for the 
pollen parent, hoping to secure progeny as near perfection as possible; he 
has reason to expect an approximate realization of his pictured seedling. 
What are the results? Not one in a thousand, probably, shows traces of the 
ideal that he had in mind. Occasionally, however, a seedling plant approach- 
ing the ideal will appear among the multitude germinated, and if this fittest 
progeny be again selected and persistently crossed back upon the original 
varieties used, the chances are that the end aimed at will be realized in 
course of time. 

I would not discourage any one who is enthusiastically expecting early 
results: on the contrary, I would urge him to persevere; it is not impossible 
that among his first efforts he may secure the ideal that he has in mind. I 
am inclined to think that it will be a rare stroke of good fortune, however, 
should this occur. 

Among the rose hybridizers—and they are legion—the results realized 
are far from what we might seem to have the right to expect. It is some 
twenty-eight years since the noted variety, Catherine Mermet, was raised, 
and, aside from its two sports, there is certainly no tea rose to dispute its 


112 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 


reign so far as form, finish, growth and freedom are concerned, and yet 
unceasing effort has been made to procure a duplicate tea variety in either 
yellow or red. In the effort to breed such a variety we have been made the 
possessors of some fine roses, but we are still seeking for the red and yellow 
Mermets; and one day, I feel sure, a scarlet tea rose with the good qualities 
of Bridesmaid is destined to appear, and that before many years, I verily 
believe. 

It has been my pleasure to see several thousand seedling roses peep 
through the soil from seed fertilized and ripened on our place, but out of 
this whole quantity the varieties selected as of permanent value number less 
than two dozen, and these are to have still further tests; a few have made 
their entry into commerce and have strong points of excellence. 

It is quite a simple operation to fertilize a rose, and many are inclined 
to think this the larger part of the work; but in my own experience the 
thorough ripening of the seed is the difficult part of the task—maturing the 
seed so that the germination shall produce a perfectly healthy plant. I am 
inclined to the belief that imperfect germination of immature seed produces 
sickly or delicate plants, which shows in their liability to mildew, black-spot 
and kindred maladies—not that it is an hereditary trait, as many suppose and 
as is generally claimed; but I am led to believe that the unripeness of the 
seed entails vital defects upon the seedlings. 

The ease with which the H. T. varieties set their pods has led hybridizers 
of the rose to use them largely, being almost sure of quick results so far as 
setting seed pods is concerned. The most noted acquisitions to this class 
have been the magnificent varieties of La France, Kaiserine Augusta Victoria, 
President Carnot, Baldwin, Prince of Bulgaria, Liberty, Mme. Jules Grolez 
and Mme. C. Testout. 

Out of a large number of Liberty-bred seedlings the tendency is to 
duplicate the parent even when pollinated with so double a variety as 
Marquis Litta, the exception being, however, in two or three of the progeny 
of this celebrated rose crossed with Grus an Teplitz. 

No one need feel discouraged, however, for through persistent effort on 
the part of many hybridizers some most excellent varieties are being given 
to commerce, none more marked, perhaps, than the variety Soleil d’Or, raised 
by M. Pernet, of Lyons; W. C. Egan is a most beautiful new climber origi- 
nating with Mr. Jackson Dawson. I mention these two varieties to illustrate 
the point that results are being obtained here and there by persistent, 
enthusiastic workers. 

Carnations—In the effort to improve the winter-flowering carnation 
through cross-fertilization the results have been very gratifying; it is safe to 
say that fully a thousand florists of the United States have made an effort 
in this line, with the result that thousands of seedling carnations have been 
raised in the past few years; the writer knows of one gentleman who annually 
germinates from six to eight thousand seedlings. Besides the large operators 
in this line, nearly every grower of carnations is testing his own seedlings, 
trying to demonstrate the hidden excellenecs which he is sure are only waiting 
development ; in consequence, a marked advance in the quality, color and size 
of the carnation is being secured. 


BREEDING FLORISTS’ FLOWERS. 113 


We owe a debt of gratitude to Frederick Dorner for having led the way 
into this most interesting path of floricultural advancement; the efforts made 
by intelligent—and fortunate—workers in this particular field have given to 
the public strong, long-stemmed flowers with perfect calyces, while the size 
has been nearly doubled in the past ten years, not to speak of the widened 
range of color and the free-blooming qualities. Out of the thousands of 
crosses made last season it would not be surprising to find one or two real 
additions forthcoming. 

Chrysanthemums. Perhaps in no other flower has the same ratio of 
progress been made in the same length of time as with this particular subject. 
The results attained have been more than gratifying, due in great measure to 
the systematic and intelligent procedure of those devoting their time to its 
improvement. Experience has systematized the knowledge obtained in this 
interesting family, and we have more data from which to work than with 
either the rose or the carnation; the semi-double forms are no longer used 
as formerly, the hybridizer confining himself to the larger and_ perfectly 
double forms of flowers. The change in method secures a minimum of seed, 
but of the small number of seeds obtained, the greater part being large, full 
flowers. This law does not seem to hold in anything like the same degree 
with the rose and the carnation, for even when both parents are full-petalled 
a large proportion of singles and semi-doubles are produced. It may be that 
when different lines of procedure are used in these two classes we may be 
able to eliminate a good portion of the singles, but thus far we are unable 
to do this. 

Begonias. Here is an unlimited field for the hybridist; the several strains 
and types of begonias are all—or nearly all—capable of being crossed; there 
seems to be no reason why we should not have beautiful flowering varieties 
with the ornamental foliage of the Rex section. 

The writer’s first attempt with begonias secured the variety Bertha 
McGregor, which was the result of crossing a Rex with the ornamental 
shrubby variety argentea compacta. Later on the writer secured a most 
interesting lot of the whorled-leaved variety of Rex by crossing the ordinary 
Rex with the whorled variety Countess L. Erdédy. We have always regretted 
the loss of this lot of seedlings, from an imported fungus growth, just when 
they were showing some very interesting characteristics, as many as twenty- 
five or thirty showing beautiful Rex markings and colorings, with the distinct 
single or double whorl of the leaf. 

We are deeply indebted to Victor Lemoine, of Nancy, for giving us that 
finest of all winter decorative plants, Begonia Gloire de Lorraine; to M. 
Lemoine more than to any other one man are we debtors for the multitude of 
magnificent new varieties of plants which have come to us through his patient, 
persevering efforts. We believe that he has earned the right to be recognized 
as the most skilful hybridist that the world has yet produced. 

The Chair: This is a very interesting field. We are all interested in the subject. 
Does any one wish to follow this paper with remarks? 

G. Nicholson: Our begonias have furnished a very interesting series of hybrids with 


-the ordinary petaled and tuberous begonias; but I believe the whole lot was entircly 
sterile. You simply have to start with a new tuberous begonia every time. You can’t 


114 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 


use the product of such a flower. But I saw flowers of begonias recently in a London 
nursery as large as a rose; magnificent things they are. Comparatively few of. them have 
yet been distributed. They sre of very great value indeed from the horticultural stand- 
point. In Southern France recently I was noticing the gardens of some horticulturists. 
It is frequently stated that the rose La France produces hybrids, but I was assured that 
that -was not the case; that La France is quite barren. The great rose raisers say that 
they have tried for years and years, and that La France is quite sterile, although it is 
stated in many catalogues that new varieties have resulted from La France. 

W. J. Spillman: There is one very interesting consideration connected with plants 
of some of the kinds mentioned in this paper. The most interesting example of what 
I wish to speak about is perhaps the apple, but on account of the long time required to 
get seed of the apple, it is almost impracticable to work out the suggestion with the 
apple. But I will use the apple because I am more familiar with it than I am with some 
other plants. It is generally conceded, I think, that with almost all apples that are grown 
under ordinary conditions, the seed may be called hybrid seed, many times hybridized 
possibly. Now, if Mendel’s law applies to seedling apples; if we should segregate an 
apple tree in order that it should be certainly close-fertilized and save the seed from that 
tree and plant it, it would split up into distinct types according to Mendel’s law. It 
would be exceedingly interesting to see what types occur in the apple, and we might find 
something of a great deal more value in the way of new apples by that means, and per- 
haps fix a type even that would be propagated true to type if self-fertilized. In this paper 
there was nothing to indicate whether the gentleman who had performed this large num- 
ber of hybridizations was working with the first generation, which no man on earth can 
predict, or was working with the second and third generations, which we can all predict. 
I would like very much to know whether or not the plants were first generation plants 
or second or third generation plants from close-fertilized hybrids. I believe that there is 
a field of work there, particularly for florists, to take these plants that are multi-hybrids, 
whose parents were hybrids, whose grandparents were hybrids, segregate some of them, 
and see what comes of them, see what tynes they split up into. If Mendel’s taw is true, 
they certainly will split up into types that can be definitely predicted. 

The Chair: Does Mr. O’Mara know whether these roses or carnations were first or 
second or third generation plants that Mr. Hill describes? Presumably the first gen- 
eration. . 

P. O’Mara: I am not quite certain that I quite catch the point. That is, were the 
crosses made from unnamed seedlings or from varieties already in commerce? 

W. J. Spillman: No; perhaps I might explain a little more fully. If you take two 
distinct varieties, two varieties that propagate true to seed, and cross them, nobody can 
predict what the result will be in the first generation; but if you will take the seed of 
that hybrid and grow it, it is possible to tell what it will produce: that is the point I 
wanted to make. Now, here is a breeder trying to produce a given plant. He crosses 
two plants, and the plant which comes from that disappoints him; it is not what he 
wants. But if he should take the seed of that plant and plant it and grow plants from the 
seed of that plant, the next generation will probably greatly surprise him and not disap- 
point him. 

P. O’Mara: I think I would be safe in saying that Mr. Hill experimented exclu- 
sively with named varieties of roses which have been so crossed and recrossed that it 
would take a very long tracing to find out where they started from. But it is a new 
line to me; I don’t profess to know anything narticular about the subject of hybridiza- 
tion; but it is a new idea to say that saving the seed of the variety so produced would 
be certain to produce an accurate result which could be gauged in advance. I am in- 
clined to think that the seed saved from that variety would be just as apt to disappoint 
the raiser as the cross obtained py this fertilization. That is as far as I know on the 
subject. 

The Chair: That was all definitely settled yesterday, Mr. O’Mara. 

P. O’Mara: Well, it is a good thing to have something settled, to settle an old 
question that way. The question that Mr. Nicholson brings up is a very interesting one 
to me, and that 1s the question whether or not La France is sterile. 1 know that we 
introduced several roses, two or three, I think, raised by Mr. Hill, and he gives the 
parent as La France in two cases. I didn’t question it. I assumed that he knew just 
exactly what he was saying, but it is a very interesting point, and the first time I see 


BREEDING FLORISTS’ FLOWERS. 115 


Mr. Hill I certainly shall speak to him, and I will write to him and ask him if he has 
found that to be true. It may be that variations of climate would produce a result dif- 
ferent from what has been the experience in another place. I am sorry that Mr. Hill is 
not here to answer interrogations. In reading the paper over I tried to read it and get 
the sense of it; I think I remember one statement in it to the effect that the carnation 
hybridizers had succeeded in producing flowers nearly twice the size of what they were 
some years ago, I think ten or fifteen or twenty years ago. I am almost inclined to chal- 
lenge that statement. I think that the size which we see in the carnation to-day is partly 
attributable to cross breeding, and also to cultivation. Now I have in my mind the recent 
Thomas W. Lawson; we saw flowers of it on exhibition, and we saw flowers of it in a 
store window grown in the same greenhouse by the same man. Some of the flowers were 
probably 31-2 inches in diameter—a great many of the prize flowers exhibited, I think, 
were 31-2 inches in diameter; a great many of the flowers sold in the store were probably 
21-4 to 21-2 inches. If the character of size was fixed by the hybridizer, I fail to see 
why they would not all come to that size grown under the same conditions. So that 1 
think the statement made that the hybridizer had succeeded in doing that is attaching tco 
much importance to the work of the hybridizer and not enough to the man who culti- 
vates them. I doubt if you go into a flower store or into any of the stores in the city 
to-day where consignments are received from the various growers of the same varieties, 
but that you could pick out a dozen samples of Bride and Bridesmaid and American 
Beauty and all those and lay them side by side, and to the uninitiated they might appear 
to be different varieties, showing what culture will do for any particular subject. I had 
more to do with cut flowers twenty years ago than I have to-day. At that time I was 
in daily association with cut flowers, roses, carnations and others, and in looking back 
I think that I am safe in saying that the old Edwardsii carnation, which at that time was 
perhaps the biggest white on the market, would compare favorably with the largest whites 
now on the market in point of size, and I think that President De Graw at the time that 
it was at its best and well grown would compare favorably in size and productiveness 
with the Lizzie McGowan, which for a time was the best carnation in the field. So that 
I should much prefer, if Mr. Hill was here, to interrogate him on these points. Some of 
the older florists who were in the field twenty years ago would perhaps be better able to 
speak on this point than I am. 

W. J. Spillman: I want to enforce the suggestion I made. I did not know whether 
the ordinary roses are what you might call multi-hybrids or not. Since I learn that they 
are, I want to just make this suggestion now, that somebody save the seed of a rose 
and see that this rose is close fertilized; that would be necessary to accomplish what I 
had in mind; then see what comes of it, and save each plant separately each year and 
keep a record and see what comes of it, and you will be surprised at the result. You can 
take my word for it if you want to. 

T. V. Munson: I have one fact that may be of value to those experimenting in 
roses in reference to the Catharine Mermet. The expectation has been that they can get 
something more from Catharine Mermet than what has already come about by sporting. 
In passing through my grounds one day, where are a number of the Catharine Mermet 
plants, I came upon one upon which there was one branch producing fine pure yellow 
roses, as fine as Marechal Niel almost, while all the other branches upon the plant were 
producing the ordinary flower. I intended to mark the branch and propagate from it; 
I was not permitted to mark the plant, I was in a hurry at the time, and before I reached 
it again the flower was gone and I lost the opportunity. But the fact may incite some 
one yet to observe this variety and possibly get the yellow rose, which would be, I think, 
the best thing that could be done with that flower. 


The Chair: A very interesting statement, Mr. Munson, as to bud variation from that 
variety. It has given us two very remarkable bud variations already. I saw Mr. Ward 
come in a few moments ago. Could he state whether the carnations grown, for ‘nstance, 
these hybrids, the beautiful collection he has here, are from the first generation of seeds 
after the cross was made or the second or the third? 

C. W. Ward: Well, I don’t think that my records are quite clear enough to enable 
me to state. I think some of them there would probably come under Mendel’s law. 
Years ago I commenced hybridizing carnations, twelve years ago, and I went at it free 
and easy for about six years. I never knew that any such person as Mendel had been 


116 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 


in existence until I came on the floor yesterday. I found, though, that I had gradually 
evolved something similar to what I believe his theory to be. That is, I have been divid- 
ing the carnations into about twelve sections, or eight sections I think, taking the crim- 
sons and inbreeding those, and the whites, and so on, and I have got to the point where 
I get reproductions; that is, in crossing pinks I get pinks, and in crossing yellows I 
get yellows. I suppose that I have been doing something somewhat near what Mendel 
was doing, although I don’t think that I have saved the seed from one particular plant 
and repeatedly planted that seed. I haven’t done that yet; I am going to try it soon, 
though. 


The following paper was pfesented by L. H. Bailey: 


A MEDLEY OF PUMPKINS 


L. H. Bailey, Horticulturalist Cornell University, Ithaca, N. Y. 


Professor Bailey’s manuscript was so long that he did not read it, but 
gave the general results of his work in extemporaneous remarks; and he 
then made a running comment on the significance of tae work with pumpkin- 
like plants and the general meaning and tendencies of the new theories that 
are now occupying the attention of plant breeders. 

His work with cucurbitaceous plants was begun in 1887, and was con- 
tinued for ten consecutive years. Its original purpose was to determine 
whether there is an immediate influence of pollen on the fruit, a question 
then under general discussion; but the work soon grew into a general line 
of crossing and experimenting for the purpose of producing new types of 
fruits that might have value to the Horticulturist. More than one thousand 
hand-crosses were made. Notes and photographs were made of the results. 
In one season eight acres of land were required on which to grow the progeny 
of the crosses. Altogether, some twenty-five or thirty acres were employed 
in the work. Many more than one thousand kinds of fruit, undescribed in 
any literature, were produced. Nearly all of these forms are yet shown in 
photographs. The very magnitude of the results has prevented their publi- 
cation. To show the work to advantage one hundred or more illustrations 
should be made. However, it is doubtful whether it is worth while to pub- 
kish the results in detail, because no underlying principles were discovered. 
The results were very remarkable, however, because of the great number of 
strange forms that were produced. Some of the results are published in the 
author’s “Plant-Breeding.” 

Most of the experiments were made with the races of Cucurbita Pepo. 
Crookneck, Bush Scallop, Bergen squashes, the Field pumpkin and various 
ornamental gourds were oftenest used as parents. ‘There was the greatest 
possible diversity in the progeny, in most cases no two plants bearing the 
same kind of fruit. In the second and third generations part of the progeny 
was grown from plants again hand-crossed and part from plants that were 
left to themselves. In some cases the plants were inbred—that is, the 
flowers were fertilized with pollen from another flower on the same plant 
(Cucurbita is moncecious). There were no essential likenesses or unlikenesses 
between these various categories. Even the progeny of inbred fruits was 
as various as that from cross-bred fruits. In no case was there any immediate 
influence of pollen, or xenia, In very many cases the progeny showed marked 


118 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF -NEW YORK. 


characters that were whelly lacking in either parent. These new characters 
were unusual colors, shapes, wartiness of the fruit and attributes of vine. 

Hybrids of two species—In all the work with Cucurbits, numbers of 
attempts were made to combine the three species, C. Pepo, C. maxima and 
C. moschata. It is a common notion amongst gardeners that these three 
species intercross interminably. All efforts, however, to combine the three 
species have failed, and the speaker is convinced that under common garden 
conditions none of these species habitually hybridize. 

He became convinced, however, that it is possible to amalgamate 
C. moschata with C. Pepo, and a definite result was secured in this direction 
in 1892. The result of many pollinations was seven fruits of the following 
progeny: 

Common ornamental gourd (Cucurbita Pepo) by the Japanese Crook- 
neck (C. moschata). 

The Fordhook bush pineapple squash (C. Pepo) by Butman squash 
(C. maxima). 

The Connecticut field pumpkin (C. Pepo) by the Japanese Crookneck 
(C. moschata). Of these two fruits were secured. 

Japanese Crookneck (C. moschata) by Red Etampes pumpkin (C. 
maxima). 

Boston Marrow squash (C. maxima) by Green Striped Bergen bush 
scallop (C. Pepo). 

Early Sugar pumpkin (C. Pepo) by Red Etampes pumpkin (C. maxima). 

In all these crosses there was no immediate effect of pollen. In four 
of these fruits, although the fruits themselves were well grown, there were 
no perfect seeds. In some cases the seeds were full grown and plump, but 
they were empty. Only three fruits gave seeds. These were the gourd 
crossed by the Japanese field pumpkin and two fruits of the Field Pumpkin 
crossed by the Japanese Crookneck. All these were crosses between C. 
Pepo and C. moschata. From the Field Pumpkin crossed by the Japanese 
crookneck fruits, eignty-eight plants were grown. These fell into about 
eight types, although there were only four or five well marked forms. Most 
of them were like a small orange pumpkin. Some were small green 
pumpkins. None of them showed any influence of the staminate parent, the 
Japanese, except that in a few the scar of the blossom end was very large, 
which is usually not the case in the varieties of the pure Cucurbita Pepo. 
One of the forms simulated a busa scallop squash of light lemon color. 
One was striped. All of these forms had the fruit stems of Cucurbita Pepo. 

The details of these progeny (of Field Pumpkin by Japanese Crookneck) 
are given in the following notes: 

Nos. I, 2, 3, 4 and 5 were much alike. They were flattish, deep orange 
pumpkins. No. 3 was marked somewhat green. 

Nos. 6 and 7 were small, hard, smooth, rather long-stemmed forms, 
yellow-orange. 

No. 8 was pyriform and green-striped. 

No. 9 was cream-color and approached the bush scallop type. Nearest 
white of any. Somewhat obconic. 


A MEDLEY OF PUMPKINS. 119 


No. 10 was an oblong, light yellow, softish fruit. 

Nos. 4 and 5 had very large blossom scars. 

Nos. 1, 2 and 3 had scars about half as large as above. 
Nos. 8, 9 and 10 had scars about a quarter as large. 
Nos. 6 and 7 had very small blossom scars. 


Crosses were made in 1893 between some of these crosses themselves, 
care being taken to choose the pistils and pollen from plants that bore very 
similar fruits. Of all these crosses only one fruit matured. 


An interesting result of these experiments was the fact that squash 
and pumpkin flowers are nearly always infertile with pollen borne by the 
same vine. Over two hundred careful tests were made on this subject 
with more than fifty varieties of pumpkins and squashes. Out of the whole 
number, only seven fruits were obtained that had good seeds. In most 
cases the ovary failed to develop. In some cases the ovary remained alive 
for some days, and it enlarged to two or three times its size at anthesis; 
but in most cases it finally perished, beginning to die away from the blossom 
or pistil end. In some cases, however, the fruits matured, being to all 
appearances normal, but they were usually empty or produced hollow seeds. 
In one experiment with five varieties of Cucurbita Pepo, representing both 
summer squashes and gourds, one hundred and eighty-five flowers were 
hand-pollinated with pollen from the same plant. All but twenty-two of 
these flowers failed to develop their ovaries. These twenty-two fruits grew 
to full maturity and appeared to be normal squashes in every way. Some 
of them, however, were wholly seediess, the seeds being represented by very 
small, undeveloped seed-coats. In a few others the seeds appeared to be 
good, but when they were opened it was found that they had no embryos. 
Of the twenty-two fruits that came to maturity only seven bore good seeds, 
and even in some of these the seeds were very few. All the seeds of these 
seven fruits were sown for the purpose of determining what the effects of 
inbreeding would be. It was found, however, that the progeny was just as 
variable as that grown from crossed seeds. The record of the progeny of 
these seven fruits is as follows: 

Fruit No. 1. Four vines were obtained from seeds of this fruit, with four 
different types, two of them being white, one yellow and one black. 

Fruit No. 2. Twenty-three vines. Fifteen types very unlike, twelve 
being white and three yellow. 

Fruit No. 3. Two vines. One type of fruit which was almost like one 
of the original parents. 

Fruit No. 4. Thirty-two vines. Six types, differing chiefly in size 
and shape. 

Fruit No. 5. Twenty vines. Nineteen types, of which ten were white, 
eight orange, one striped, and all very unlike. 

Fruit No. 6. Thirteen vines. Eleven types, eight yellow, two black, 
one white. 

Fruit No. 7. One vine. 

Very unusual crossings sometimes resulted in the production of 
apparently good fruit. For example, a bush scallop squash crossed with 


120 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 


the pollen of a cucumber produced a fruit to all appearances normal, but it 
was empty. In some of the hybridizations between the different species, as 
between Cucurbita Pepo, C. moschata and C. maxima, the same result was 
secured (as already noted). He was not positive whether these pericarps 
were made to grow to their normal size through the influence of the foreign 
pollen, or whether there may not have been other influences at work, as 
there is in the case of the hothouse cucumbers, fruits of which will develop 
to large size without any pollen whatever. However, many tests were made 
by withholding pollen from the flowers, but in no case did the ovary develop 
to any size. 

It is a common notion amongst gardeners that nearly all kinds of 
cucurbitaceous plants mix interminably. It is a common opinion, for 
example, that muskmelons are rendered insipid and worthless when cucumbers 
are growing in their vicinity. Close observation in the field will convince 
any person of the fallacy of this idea, but experiments were undertaken for 
the purpose of testing the matter. Muskmelon flowers were pollinated from 
cucumber flowers, both in the house and in the open. In one case ninety- 
seven muskmelon flowers of various kinds were pollinated from cucumber 
flowers of various kinds, but no fruits developed. ‘Twenty-five cucumber 
flowers at one time were pollinated by muskmelon pollen, but only one fruit 
developed, and that was seedless. These experiments and others coincide 
with those made by other investigators, that cucumbers do not spoil melons. 


GENERAL REMARKS. 


After giving the general results of crossing the cucurbits at some length 
Professor Bailey spoke of the bearing of this work on the recent discus- 
sions concerning hybridization, and also of the trend of recent evolution 
literature. On the surface, all the experiments with pumpkins and squashes 
seem to run counter to the results secured by Mendel with peas and other 
plants. As a matter of fact, however, the work with the squashes is not 
comparable with that of Mendel, since different objects were in view and 
different methods were employed. Mendel’s work was conducted with spe- 
cific differentiating characters, whereas this work with the pumpkins was 
concerned with the gross behavior of the plants and the gross characters 
of the fruits. It is possible that if the work were to be done over again, 
with Mendel’s methods and results in view, the same laws would be found 
to hold with cucurbitaceous plants. However, it would be a very difficult 
matter to determine, because of the instability of the cucurbits, tie fact 
that they are moncecious and that constant crossing therefore is necessary, 
and the fact that so many variants would need to be contrasted. The sub- 
ject is far too complicated for Mendelian methods until one has thoroughly 
mastered the simpler forms of hybridization experiments. 

The work of Mendel, so recently revived, has two very important gen- 
eral bearings. In the first place, it is bound to set going a new discussion 
in respect to hybridity ; second, it will be likely to revolutionize our metaods 
of performing hybridization experiments, and of casting up the results of 
them. Whether or no Mendel’s rules will hold good for all plants and for 
all characters is not yet known, The probability is that it will not. The 


A MEDLEY OF PUMPKINS. Pal 


very fact that Mendel chose his stock plants with such great care, selecting 
species which are relatively invariable, that do not intercross, and taat he 
eliminated the weak and abnormal plants, would tend to give uniformity in 
the results. We are in danger of becoming partisans. Professor Bailey re- 
marked that he neither believed nor disbelieved in Mendel’s laws. He de- 
sired only to know what the truth is. He thought that future experiments 
should be carried on along the lines suggested by Mendel, and not for the 
purpose of proving or disproving his conclusions. 

It has recently been said that the time is rapidly coming when we can 
predict the results of hybridization with certainty, and can produce new 
varieties of plants with almost no element of chance. This hope is far too 
sanguine. Mendel’s laws come from a contrast and comparison of specific 
differentiating characters. It is not so much a contrast of plants as a 
contrast of single characters of those plants. In ordinary crossing it will 
often be impossible to secure plants that have differentiating characters. 
What the plant breeder wants is a plant in its entirety rather than a plant 
with specific attributes alone; that is to say, it may be possible to secure 
some character that is wanted, but with this desired character undesirable 
ones of other kinds may be associated. Furthermore, Mendel’s results 
show that the offspring of hybrids are not intermediates or new kinds, but 
that they are controlled by the characters of one or the other of the parents, 
so that new forms may not arise as a result of crossing. Every plant nas 
unknown and unrecognizable characters, attributes that we refer in a loose 
way to the “constitution” of the plant. Moreover, one does not know in ad- 
vance what characters will become dominant and which will be recessive. 
In other words, Mendel’s law must be applied and discovered for each kind 
of plant; and the probabilities are that the results will be considerably modi- 
fied by the conditions under which the plants grow. Again, the uniformity 
in Mendel’s results was secured by tne average totals of a great number of 
plants. The individual plants often varied widely in the very characters 
which in the average totals were relatively invariable in behavior. Now, the 
starting point of a new variety must be one individual plant, and not the 
average of a hundred or a thousand. The general results may be predicted 
with some degree of certainty, but how the individual plants will stand 
with reference to that result wili be unknown. The practical value 
of Mendel’s work to the actual plant breeder is yet in doubt, but the value 
of these remarkable experiments in elucidating our notions of hybridity, and 
in systematizing experiments, may be beyond calculation. 

Professor Bailey also spoke of the recent philosophy of De Vries and 
his associates. Heretofore our thought has been dominated very largely 
by the Darwinian principle; that is, it is supposed that great differences may 
come about because small differences are enlarged by means of natural or 
artificial selection—a variety may become more of a variety. The new notion 
is that the important and permanent forms of plants come about as sudden 
sports or jumps, and that the small individual variations are incapable of 
growing into large and permanent varieties by means of natural selection. 
De Vries does not deny the power of natural selection, but he believes that 
its range is limited, that it cannot give rise to species, and that it does not 


122 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 


contribute to permanency; as soon as selection is discontinued the form 
again breaks up or reverts. De Vries’ theory of mutations is, in a way, a 
rephrasing of the old idea of sports. It differs in some essential points, 
however. One is in the supposition that plants mutate or sport in periods, 
and that in the intermediate epochs they are only making ready for another 
mutation period; that is to say, there are non-mutation periods and muta- 
tion periods. In the pre-mutation periods, be they long or short, the plant 
produces incidental individual fluctuations or variations, but the great prog- 
ress in variation is made in the mutation periods. This body of belief is 
bound to challenge our accepted notions and our way of looking at the or- 
ganic creation. This, together with Mendel’s suggestions in respect to 
heredity, promise to awaken the liveliest discussion during the next few 
years. The speaker thought it probable that when these discussions shall 
have passed their first stage of enthusiasm we shall return to the Darwinian 
hypothesis, although he doubted whether we should ever hold ‘to it so com- 
pletely and so strenuously as we have in the past. We are bound to make 
distinctions between the kinds of varieties, classifying them either as indi- 
vidual fluctuations and mutations, or, from another point of view, as quan- 
titative and qualitative. In other words, it is probable that there are varieties 
and varieties, and that not all of them are destined to have the same influence 
on the phylogeny of the race. 

The general trend of the discussions at the meeting, he said, seemed to 
be too exclusively along the line of hybridization, as if there were no other 
means of breeding and improving plants. 

Mr. O’Mara’s remarks * were heartily seconded—the fact that good care 
on the part of the grower is often more important than the variety merely. 
Often a good variety may become a poor one, or. a poor one a good one, by 
the exercise of skill in the growing of it. Plant breeding alone cannot im- 


prove our cultivated plants. It must be combined with all good care. 

O. F. Cook: I wish to raise one question, because I think that we should give our 
predecessors credit for standing where they stood, in order that we may not accuse them 
later of holding things which they didn’t hold. We had, I think, a very conspicuous 
instance in the case of Darwin. Darwin thought a great many things and was not 
nearly as sure of a great many of them as many of his successors have been and he 
is now frequently accused of having made mistakes which he never made, but which he 
is accused of having made because they were made by other persons who have taken 
the responsibility of representing him. I fear that this will be to a considerable extent 
the case with Mendel. He took the precaution, I find, for which he deserves all good 
credit, of saying when he announced his so-called laws, that these were things that hap- 
pened with the peas which he cultivated and in his garden. He did not say that they 
applied to all creation, or any other part of creation. He raised the question why in two 
or three hundred experiments they did not all work out the same way; he freely admits, 
and he leaves the matter entirely open. It seems to me that it is hardly fair even to talk 
about Mendel’s law until we have reason to believe that it is a law and that it is at least of 
wide application. It may turn out to be very much like many discoveries in physiology 
and other new sciences, which are made to apply to the cases where the original investi- 
gation was made, but that may not have any very wide application. 

W. Bateson: It gives me great pleasure to listen to the paper of Prof. Bailey, 
which I am sure we all feel was most stimulating and enjoyable. I should like to say a 
few words about the application of Mendel’s law to these more complicated cases such 
as those of the squashes and pumpkins which were made the subject of his paper. I am 


*See page 115. 


A MEDLEY OF PUMPKINS. 123 


sorry if any one who had heard that paper were to go away with the impression—I am 
sure Professor Bailey would not wish to give that impression—that because of the great 
complexity of the results given by crossing the squashes and pumpkins and allowing 
their offspring to cross and the difficulty of classifying the offspring so produced, that 
therefore such a case was contradictory or in any way beyond the scope of Mendel’s law. 
There is no reason so far as I can see to suppose that. If I had time, I could give you 
a number of cases that we do know are not included in the scope of Mendel’s law, but 
such a case as this, on account of the great diversity of the offspring, is no evidence 
whatever that Mendel’s law does not apply, for the following reason: Mendel’s law in 
its original form-is dealing with a statement of the results obtained with hybridization 
of simple characters. For instance, you cross together the green pea and the yellow 
pea; the germ cells of the hybrid will form themselves purely yellow or purely green. 
We are dealing with single characters that were put in with the parents. But Mendel’s 
law deals with a more complicated, and, to the practical man, far more important group 
of cases than that, where the parental characters that are put in are not simple, and 
eases in which the hybrid when it comes to form its germ celis does not form the 
parental characters simplv, but divides those parental characters. into what, for the want 
of a better term, we call their components. For example, the color of these squashes 
and pumpkins. There is not the slightest doubt that these in other cases would not fol- 
low the simple rules of Mendel’s creation. For example, these colors may consist not of 
one simple character, but six or eight or ten or more component characters. The shapes 
of the squashes again in all*probability consist of at least six or eight component char- 
acters. When you come to observe that each plant that you obtain can only take one 
of each of those components from one parent and one from another, you may have com- 
binations of an immense number of different entities taken two together, so that the 
complexity reaches a degree that is always beyond the reach of experiment. We cannot 
infer from those facts that Mendel’s law will not apnly. It is simply that the enormous 
areas which must be under cultivation when we are dealing with such an immense number 
of characters make it practically impossible to draw any conclusions. One word with 
regard to the point of the cytological investigations that were told of previously. I am 
afraid there is a little difficulty there for this very reason in regard to the complexity of 
character; there is a little difficulty in the way of ever hoping to analyze ultimately by 
the microscope the characters in the way that Mendel’s law teaches us to believe they 
might be analyzed. Because it is very true that in Ascaris and in a number of other 
forms referred to we have reason to believe that the chromosomes of the father 
plant and mother plant side by side represent blocks of parental characters, that is 
not enough to help us to trace out ultimately the different parental forms of gametes. 
To do that you would have to have narticles representing each parental character, not 
merely the whole block of chromosomes representing the father plant and the mother 
plant; you would have to have fragments representing each of the constituents of the 
father and each of the constituents of the mother, and they would again combine in the 
various combinations that we must expect. Complexity itself is no bar at all to the 
application of Mendel’s law. 

With regard to one point that the last speaker made; he said that Mendel’s law is 
possibly a thing of small range of application, or, at all events, cannot be asserted to 
be of universal application, and consequently it may apply to comparatively a few things. 
It may be of interest to those who are not perfectly acquainted with those investigations 
if I just briefly run over the kind of characters that have been shown to follow Mendel’s 
law. For instance, there were Mendel’s seven original characters, shape of plants and 
characters of seeds and pods, carried into several details; then there are the animal 
cases; we know that it applies to the shape of the combs of fowls, to the extra toe in 
several races of fowls, we know that it applies to the colors of fowls; we know that in 
mice it applies to the curious waltzing habit of the Japanese mouse, that character in- 
volving, we may say, almost mental attributes. We know it applies to the whole series 
of colors into which the whole series of rats has been broken, and to, I may say, twelve 
or fifteen different colors in plants. I think it is not too much to say that it applies to 
almost every case where the test has been possible of application. 

N. L. Britton: The fruit of Cucurbita was the subject of experimentation. Even in 
the wild species of Cucurbita there is a very great diversity of form and size of fruits, 
as is well known, and I think it is possible that that might have lent difficulty. 


124 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 


The Chair: Professor Bailey was perhaps somewhat unfortunate in the subject of 
his experiments. 

L. H. Bailey: I believed, and I became convinced before I came through, that I 
had got hold of the wrong topic. It was too large for me, and I believe that one to take 
up the discussion of the Cucurbits and variation through hybridization has got first to 
be well grounded in many simple things. And from the point of view that I occupy 
now I believe it is one of the last things for a man to take up to work with. I quite 
agree with what Mr. Bateson has said, that if I could work the thing over I might be 
able to discover some kind of law governing these facts, but looking it over now, I can’t 
do so. All I know now is that I got lots of things, I don’t know how. 

T. V. Munson: I don’t know whether I can say anything that would be of further 
value on this discussion, but it does occur to me that we are apt to spend a great deal of 
time in discussing theories without arriving at any solution. It has come to me in my 
own work that the matter of hybridization is entirely too extended for us to begin to 
establish a general law. There are some intimations of existing laws in the work, but 
we find that whenever we begin to discuss those so-called laws, as Mendel’s, we 
end with a great deal of pro and con discussion without solution, without a satisfactory 
conclusion. It appears to me like this: that everything in the entire organic world—I 
might make it universal—with reference to form, is the result of environment, and in 
that I include the subject itself as a part, a small part, sometimes a very large part, of 
thé environment, and what we are looking at is what has produced this result. It is a 
result that has partly come out of the individual under view and the effects of the sur- 
roundings upon that. Now, in working upon plants, I think we should not confine our 
views entirely to a biological standpoint, but that we are all the time tracing chemical 
influences. There is a chemical laboratory in every plant and chemical changes taking 
place. Each variety of fertilizer given the plant produces its effect in taking up and 
elaborating the substances, and in carrying on those chemical changes it evidently brings 
about its own result. So that we might say there is one general law. It seems to me 
that in every direction I have observed in my work the result has come out of a set 
of surroundings of the environment. And when we study the environment, the soils 
we are using, the moisture in the atmosphere, the temperature, all those conditions have 
some influence. If we undertake to make a general application of such a law or so- 
called law as that of Mendel, which is, I think, a very small law—laws are of different 
capacities; some reach very far and others but a very little distance—Mendel’s law ap- 
plies to pure seedlings through several generations. Suppose, instead of using pure seed- 
lings, we continue to hybridize each generation, and we have many other ways of pro- 
ducing varieties, applying other influences. This, then, has a very narrow limit to the 
hybridizer wishing to employ all the different influences that he may see fit to employ. 
So that, in spending time upon discussing this one small law, or a very short reaching 
law, we may overlook more general laws, and we shall be more likely to reach results if 
we collect facts, put them where the experimenter can use them, and show the extent to 
which we have absolutely proven. Then, like Kepler, after a time (and I don’t think 
that time has yet arrived to establish any great number of laws in hybridization), we can 
probably draw some more general laws. Then I think our most practical direction in 
which to work is to collect facts, strive always after something that is useful, 
something that is practical, and make notes of every influence, everything obtained, and 
on these facts will grow laws that are exceedingly valuable. It is true we want laws; 
we want something by which we can guide ourselves in this work; but if you try to 
make a law out of a mere theory which is only set up for experimentation you are 
wasting time. 


Dr. N. L. Britton was here called to the chair. 
The following paper was read by William Saunders: 


RESULTS OF HYBRIDIZATION AND PLANT BREEDING 
IN CANADA 


William Saunders, Director of the Central Experiment Farm, Ottawa, Canada. 


Early in the history of fruit growing in Canada there were a few en- 
thusiastic men who devoted: much time to the production of new varieties of 
fruits, some of whom have left behind them, in the useful sorts they have 
originated, valuable legacies for future generations. This work has been 
carried on along many different lines. 

The late Charles Arnold, of Paris, Ontario, was among the early labor- 
ers in this interesting field—indeed, I believe he was the pioneer in cross-fer- 
tilizing for the production of new fruits in Canada. He chose the grape 
for his first experiments, and from a cross of the Clinton with Black St. 
Peters he produced five new sorts, namely, Othello, Canada, Brant, Cornu- 
copia and Autochon, the first four being black and Autochon white. In 1868 
a committee was appointed by the Fruit Growers’ Association of Ontario, of 
which the writer was a member, to visit Mr. Arnold’s grounds and report 
on these grapes, which had then been several years under trial. These new 
varieties were highly spoken of and recommended for more general cultiva- 
tion. In 1874 the Othello, a large black grape of good quality, was dis- 
tributed for trial among the members of the Fruit Growers’ Association of 
Ontario, and was thus widely tested over the province. Except in the most 
favored districts, it was found to be rather late in ripening, and it is now 
seldom met with in Canadian vineries. The Canada and the Brant are more 
widely known, and are favorably spoken of by many. All these varieties are 
now grown in France, and the Othello is said to be extensively cultivated in 
some parts of that country for wine making. Mr. Arnold was awarded a 
medal and diploma for his new hybrid grapes at the Centennial Exhibition in 
1876, and they were specially commended. 

At the same time Mr. Arnold was also doing some good work among 
apples. In 1873 he exhibited at the meeting of the American Pomological 
Society, held in Boston, Mass., eighteen varieties of cross-bred apples, all 
seedlings of the Northern Spy crossed with Wagener. Only one of these 
seedlings has found its way into general cultivation, but this one is of superior 
excellence, and is known under the name of Ontario. It is an apple now 
grown largely by some Canadian orchardists, and is found to be very valuable 


126 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 


for export. For thrifty growth of tree, early bearing, productiveness, good 
quality and long keeping it stands among the best. In 1874 a special prize was 
awarded to this apple by the Fruit Growers’ Association of Ontario, and 
subsequently trees of Ontario were sent for trial to the members of the Asso- 
ciation, and by this means the variety was very generally tested. Two others 
of these cross-bred apples—Arnold’s Beauty and Ella—are still found in some 
orchards, but are not generally known. 

Strawberries also claimed some of the attention of this general worker. 
He crossed the Wilson with Dr. Nicaisse and produced Alpha, Arnold’s Pride, 
Maggie and Bright Ida, which were well spoken of at the time, but have, I 
think, all excepting Maggie since dropped out of cultivation. 

He also devoted some attention to raspberries. He first crossed the old 
White Cap with Franconia, from which he obtained many seedlings, two of 
which were red. These were subsequently crossed with Marvel of Four 
Seasons, from which the Orange King was produced. By crossing this 
latter with Hornet several promising sorts were originated, including Diadem, 
Arnold’s Red and several others. These were grown by many cultivators for 
some years, but are now seldom found in collections. 

In 1872 Mr. Arnold is referred to as having raised a new variety of 
winter wheat of rare excellence, having the hardiness of some of the dark 
skinned sorts, with the thin, white skin of the more tender kinds. That year 
he exhibited this wheat at the meeting of the Ontario Agricultural Associa- 
tion, for which he was awarded a gold medal. He subsequently sold a por- 
tion of his stock of this grain to the United States Department of Agriculture, 
and-it has since been grown more or less in different parts of Canada and 
the United States under the name of Gold Medal wheat, or Arnold’s Hybrid. 

He also made some crosses with corn. Using yellow as the female, he 
pollenized it successively with red and white, and exhibited specimens which 
snowed these three colors clearly in the kernels. 

One of Charles Arnold’s most successful efforts was in connection with 
his work on peas. He crossed McLean’s Little Gem with Champion of Eng- 
land and produced a very dwarf variety, an excellent bearer, producing peas 
of high quality. The writer had the opportunity of testing it at Mr. Arnold’s 
home in July, 1875. He subsequently sold this pea for a satisfactory consid- 
eration to the well known seedsmen, Bliss & Sons, and it has since been in 
general cultivation under the name of American Wonder, and is still very 
highly esteemed. Mr. Arnold died in 1893, at the age of 65 years. 

The late Peter C. Dempsey, of Albury, Ontario, was anotaer of the early 
and persistent Canadian workers in plant breeding. His first work reported 
was done on the grape. He made crosses with Clinton and Golden Chasselas, 
Creveling and Sweetwater, Allen’s Hybrid and Delaware, and Hartford and 
Black Hamburg. One of these latter, out of a considerable number which 
fruited, proved to be of superior merit, and was named Burnet. It was first 
exhibited in 1873 at the autumn meeting of the Fruit Growers’ Association of 
Ontario, branches with clusters being then shown, that was the second year 
of its fruiting. The bunch was large and slightly shouldered; berry large, skin 
thin, flesh tender, almost melting; sweet, delicately flavored, and quite free 
from foxiness. In quality it much resembled Black Hamburg. It was sub- 


PLANT BREEDING IN CANADA. 127 


Sequently exhibited at many meetings of fruit growers, and was the subject 
of much favorable comment. When brought into general cultivation this grape 
was found to be rather late in ripening, and some seasons many of the 
berries were small and seedless. The Burnet grape is still found in many 
collections. 

Mr. Dempsey also showed a white grape the same year—No. 18—which 
was regarded as very promising, and was awarded a special prize. At the time 
this was exhibited Mr. Dempsey stated that out of a number of seedlings of 
this cross of Hartford with Black Hamburg five out of every seven were 
white. This seems remarkable, seeing that both parents were black. 

He also experimented with pears, of which he produced seventeen crosses, 
and from these grew a large number of seedlings. One of the latter, a cross 
of Bartlett fertilized with pollen of Duchess, proved to be a pear of special 
merit, and was introduced to general cultivation under the name of Dempsey. 
The tree is a healthy and vigorous: grower and quite productive. The fruit 
is large, about the same size as Duchess; pyriform; irregular in outline; 
smooth; green, changing to yellow as it ripens, with a slight brown tinge 
when exposed to the sun. The flesh is white, fine grained, tender, with granu- 
lations about the centre like the Duchess; -sweet, juicy, with a rich flavor. 
Season, October and November. 

Among other pears produced by him was a highly flavored winter variety, 
the result of crossing the Duchess de Bordeaux with Josephine de Malines, 
but this was never introduced to general cultivation. 

Mr. Dempsey did some work in apples also. He crossed the Golden 
Russet with the Spy, and raised, among other seedlings, the Walter and. the 
Trenton, two highly esteemed sorts, which are found in many collections. The 
Walter is a handsome apple—large, round or oblong, of a yellow color over- 
laid with splashes and stripes of deep red. The flesh is white and the quality 
good. The Trenton has the appearance of an apple of the Fameuse family. 
In size and form it resembles the Russet. The color is more infense than 
Fameuse and the flavor rich. 

He also did some work in gooseberries, having crossed the Houghton, 
Smith’s Improved and Downing with English varieties, and also raised some 
good seedling black currants, but I am not aware that any of these have 
survived. 

Peter C. Dempsey died in the autumn of 18o1, at the age of 63. His own 
words, spoken of other experimenters, may well be applied to himself: “What 
richer legacy can a man leave to the generations which are to follow him than 
a fine, delicious fruit which he has originated with his own hand?” 

The late W. H. Mills, of Hamilton, Ontario, also deserves a place among 
Canadian plant breeders. His work, as far as I can learn, was confined to the 
crossing of grapes. In 1874 a committee was appointed by the Fruit Growers’ 
Association of Ontario to visit and report on Mr. Mills’ seedling grapes. 
These were found to include some promising sorts, chiefly crosses of Rose 
Chasselas with Diana, Black Hamburg with Concord, and Muscat Hamburg 
with Creveling. Descriptions were given of a number of these new varieties, 
but the only one which has survived the test of years is one of the crosses 
between Muscat Hamburg and Concord. This grape was at first named 


128 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 


Sultana, but later was known as Mills. The vine is vigorous and productive; 
bunch large, compact and shouldered; berry black, with a thick bloom; flesh 
meaty, juicy, with a rich, sprightly flavor. The skin is thick and the berries 
adhere so firmly to the stem that a cluster can be lifted by a single berry. 
This grape ripens about with the Concord and is a long keeper. The Mills 
was introduced to general cultivation in 1888 by Elwanger & Barry, nursery- 
men, of Rochester, N. Y.,-and still holds a place among cultivated sorts. 

The late William Haskins, also of Hamilton, Ontario, was anotner worker 
among grapes, and effected crosses between. Hartford Prolific and Black 
Hamburg, Creveling and Black Hamburg, Concord and Allen’s Hybrid, 
Oporto and Black Hamburg, Chippewa and Black Hamburg, and Rogers 15 
and Delaware. Several of the seedlings raised from these crosses were re- 
garded with favor at the time, but one only of superior merit is now in cul- 
tivation. This is known as the Abyssinia, from Creveling crossed with Black 
Hamburgh. The vine is hardy and a thrifty grower; bunch medium to large, 
and compact; berry large, black and of good quality, much resembling Creve- 
ling. It is said to ripen earlier taan the Concord. 

The late James Dougall, of Windsor, Ontario, raised many seedling fruits. 
He, however, depended chiefly, if not wholly, on selection. The Windsor 
cherry was one of his productions. This fruit was first exhibited by him at 
the summer meeting of the Fruit Growers’ Association of Ontario, held at 
Goderich, Ontario, in 1871. It was then described as a cherry of medium size, 
jet black, flesh tender and luscious, quality very good. This proved to be a 
valuable acquisition, and is now much grown. 

Mr. Dougall also did some work on gooseberries. In 1873 he exhibited 
a number of seedlings supposed to be crosses of English sorts with Houghton. 
Some of these were reported as very productive, but I do not know of any of 
them in cultivation now. 

RECENT WORK. 

Among the more valuable seedling fruits of recent origin in Canada the 
following are well deserving of mention: 

The McIntosh Red apple, originated by John McIntosh, of Dundela, On- 
tario; an early winter sort, and in its season probably the finest apple in culti- 
vation for dessert purposes. Ripe, November to January. 

The Russell, which was produced in Russell County, Ontario, is an early 
apple of good quality. Ripe from middle of August to middle of September. 

Scarlet Pippin, originated at Lyn, Leeds County, Ontario, near Brockville. 
A very attractive apple, highly colored, and of good quality. Season, early 
winter. 

Canada Baldwin. Said to have originated at St. Hilaire, Quebec. A 
medium sized fruit of good quality. Season, midwinter. 

La Victoire, originated near Grenville, Quebec. A handsome apple; me- 
dium in size, of good quality. Season, midwinter. 

wayzie Pomme Grise, originated near Niagara, Ontario. Size, under 
medium; yellow, with a thin russet coating; highly flavored; quality very 
good—one of the best dessert apples of the midwinter season. 

My own efforts in cross-breeding were begun in 1868, and have been 
continued at intervals ever since. The work done has included experiments 


PLANT BREEDING IN CANADA. 129 


with the gooseberry, red and white currant, black currant, raspberry, black- 
berry, grape, apple, pear, plum, cherry, Sand cherry, Japanese quince, rose and 
barberry. Also with different sorts of wheat, barley, oats, peas and rye, and 
with several species of flowers. 

METHODS OF WORK. 

Before referring to these in further detail reference will be made to some 
of tne methods employed in carrying on these different lines of work. 

In the breeding of plants the term cross-bred is used when referring to 
the crosses produced between different varieties of the same species, and the 
word hybrid when referring to new forms obtained by crossing such plants 
as are generally regarded as distinct species. 

The results obtained from efforts at crossing or hybridizing depend much 
on the care taken in conducting the operation. In a general way, however, it 
is believed by many experimenters that crosses in fruit inherit their constitu- 
tion largely from the female, while the quality and flavor are, it is thought, 
much influenced by the other sex. 

The tools required in cross-breeding are few; but a steady hand has an 
important bearing on the success of the work. The following includes all 
that are needed to supplement the human hand: A pair of finely pointed for- 
ceps; some camel hair pencils; paper and gauze bags large enough to enclose 
the branches on which the blossoms to be worked are situated; twine for 
tying these bags in place, and a few wired labels to attach to the branches, 
on which the number of the cross or other particulars may be written. 

In choosing flower buds to work on, all those which are partially open 
should be rejected, also those which are very immature, the aim being to 
work on those which are so far advanced as to be nearly ready to open. 
Having chosen the flowers to be operated on, remove carefully with the finely 
pointed forceps the floral envelopes, calyx and corolla, without bruising or 
otherwise injuring the internal organs. The stamens with their anthers are 
then torn away, leaving the pistil or pistils exposed. When all the flowers 
selected have been thus prepared they are at once enclosed in a paper bag, 
which is tied to the branch, until pollen from the other variety to be used in 
the cross can be secured. 

In obtaining pollen of the apple, pear, plum, cherry, strawberry, black- 
berry, gooseberry, etc., it can generally be had in sufficient quantities, and 
often in abundance, if branches well furnished with blossom buds which are 
just about to open are cut and placed in a vessel of water in a sunny place in- 
doors. Tne anthers usually discharge their pollen in the morning, and by 
lightly pinching them between the finger and thumb, where the skin is usually 
moist enough to catise the pollen to adhere, the fertilizing powder can be 
seen in small patches on the surface, and, with care, can be transferred by 
the hand to the flowers awaiting fertilization. Where one depends on ob- 
taining pollen from flowers outside it will often be found that bees and 
other insects have preceded the hybridist, and in their efforts to gather 
nectar from the flowers the anthers have been so knocked about that much 
of the pollen has been scattered. If the variety from which it is desired to 
obtain the pollen is later in blooming than the individual to be crossed, the 
opening of the blossoms may be hastened by cutting small branches well 


130 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 


supplied with blossom buds a few days before the pollen is needed, placing 
them in water and exposing them to heat and sunlight in a greenhouse. 

In working with grape blossoms the pollen may be collected by holding 
closely under the flower clusters recently opened a piece of blue paper, when 
bv a sharp tap with the finger on that portion of the branch a cloud of pollen 
dust will be liberated, which will settle on the paper below. By repeating this 
operation several times the quantity of pollen on the paper may be materially 
increased. The caps of the grape flowers will also fall plentifully, but 1, 
carefully removing them the pollen may be seen spread on the surface of the 
paper below. With a camel hair pencil, slightly moistened, this pollen can be 
collected and easily applied to the pistils of the variety to be fertilized. 

In applying the pollen from the raspberry and the blackberry it has been 
found better to break off the expanded blossoms, and, having removed the 
petals and the central bunch of pistils, carry the mutilated flower on which 
the fringe of the stamens alone remains, and twirl these about among the 

In operating on such cereals as wheat, barley and oats the process is 
many pistils in the flowers previously prepared for crossing. 
much more difficult. In working with wheat the head should be selected soon 
after it has pushed out from the sheath. This head consists of a series of 
spikelets, which are arranged alternately on opposite sides of the stalk. Later 
each spikelet will contain from two to five kernels of wheat. In the early 
stages of its growth the kernels in the head are not formed, but the hollow 
centres which they are destined to fill are occupied by the more or less de- 
veloped flowers of the plant. 

In the accompanying figure, drawn from nature, we have a portion of a 
wheat ear from which all the spikelets but one have been removed, and on 
one side of this, one of the floral chambers has been opened. ‘The outer 
covering of chaff has been torn off and the inner covering turned down so as 
to expose the flower of the wheat plant to view. This is seen to consist of 
three stamens, threadlike at base, with large anthers. overhanging a double 
branched, succulent, feathery pistil. 

In nature fertilization takes place within the tightly closed chaffy case 
which encloses the flower, where, as the anthers mature, they open and 
the pollen is shed on the delicate, feathery pistil below. Portions of this 
pollen remain attached to the surface of the pistil, and from one or more of 
these minute, microscopic bodies a small, threadlike growth proceeds, which 
pierces the soft tissue of the pistil and, gradually lengthening, soon extends 
to its base, where it enters the ovary, and fertilization is accomplished, fol- 
lowed by the rapid growth of a kernel. 

When operating on wheat, to effect a cross the outer layer of chaff is 
torn off with a pair of finely pointed forceps and the inner coating pulled back 
by seizing it near the top and bending it downward, which exposes the 
flower. The anthers are then carefully examined, and if their condition is 
sufficiently advanced to offer the possibility of any of the pollen having been 
shed, the spikelet to which it belongs is torn off and other flowers opened, 
until some are found in the desired condition, with the stamens green, but 
almost mature. These are removed with much care, as the slightest injury 
to the soft and delicate pistil will cause it to wither. The flower is then 


PLANT BREEDING IN CANADA. 131 


covered by replacing the inner coating of chaff in its natural position. After 
the removal of the stamens from a sufficient number of selected flowers all 
other portions of the head are torn off and rejected. 

Having previously collected heads of the variety or species which is to 
serve as the male, flowers are sought which contain anthers fully matured and 
covered with pollen, when the individual flowers prepared for fertilization are 
opened again in succession, and the soft, feathery pistil is gently touched with 


Spikelet of wheat with the glumes in front, turned down, exposing the three stamens 
and two-branched pistil. (Enlarged four diameters.) 


one or more of the pollen-bearing anthers from the other variety until a 
perceptible quantity of the fertilizing powder has been applied, wnen the 
flower case is again closed. After all the flowers in a prepared head have 
been operated on it is wrapped in thin paper, so secured by tying as to pre- 
vent the possibility of access of other pollen. As a further precaution, the 
covered head is then tied to a piece of stick or bamboo cane, where it remains 


132 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 


untouched until harvest time, when any kernels which have been formed will 
be mature and may be safely gathered. Each kernel, when sown the following 
season, will form the starting point of a new variety. 

In crossing different sorts of barley the head should be worked before 
it is fully out of the sheath, as natural fertilization takes place earlier with 
this grain than with wheat. 

In cereals, the single plant grown the first year will produce heads all 
alike, and these will usually resemble closely the variety on which the kernel 
has been produced. Occasionally, however, it will, to some extent, take after 
the plant from which the pollen has been gathered. If the cross has been 
successfully made, the grain obtained from the plant of the first year’s growth, 
when sown the next season, will usually produce several different forms, some 
resembling one parent and some the other, while other plants will produce 
heads more or less intermediate in character. After selecting the most de- 
sirable type or types from a cross, all other forms are discarded, and only 
those retained from year to year which are true to the type or types selected. 
After several seasons of careful selection the type usually becomes fairly per- 
manent. Variations will, however, in some cases still occasionally occur, and 
such should be separated whenever they appear, if the new grain is to be 
preserved true to the chosen type. 

In efforts to cross cereals many failures may- be looked for, and with all 
the skill which trained hands can bring to bear on the work the ripened 
kernels are always few, compared with the number of flowers operated on. 
A partial record of the crossing whicn has been done on wheat at the 
Canadian Experimental Farms shows that from 1,650 flowers carefully worked 
only 220 kernels were obtained—about one in eight. 

In all efforts at cross-fertilizing paper bags are recommended for cover- 
ing the flowers, on account of their closeness of texture. Pollen grains are 
frequently blown about by the wind, and are in many instances so very 
minute that they would pass readily through the meshes of the finest gauze. 
With grain, tne paper bags have been allowed to remain on until the close 
of the season; but with fruit and flowers, after the fruit or seed is so far 
advanced as to be beyond the possibility of further influence from pollen, the 
practice has been to replace the paper bag with one of fine gauze, which will 
give free access of air and light, and thus promote healthy growth. 


GOOSEBERRY CROSSES. 

In my own work the first crosses were made in 1868, and were with 
the gooseberry. These were made with the object of improving the size and 
quality of what are known as the American gooseberries, by introducing strains 
of some of the best English sorts, and at the same time obtain varieties less 
liable to gooseberry mildew (Sphaerotheca mors-uvae), which usually affects 
all the English gooseberries grown in this country so badly, in fruit and 
foliage, as to discourage their cultivation. Those which are known as Ameri- 
can sorts are generally said to have sprung from the wild species, with 
perhaps more or less mixture of European strains. They are noted for their 
hardiness, productiveness and freedom from mildew. They lack, however, 
the size and quality of the English sorts, 


PLANT BREEDING IN CANADA. 133 


Iexperiments were conducted in crossing gooseberries in 1868, 1870 and 
1871, and several hundred seedlings were produced some of which are still 
in cultivation. Two of them—one named Pearl, a cross between Downing 
and Ashton’s Seedling, and another called Red Jacket, a cross between 
Houghton and Warrington—are popular sorts on account of their size, pro- 
ductiveness and freedom from mildew, and are extensively grown both in 
Canada and the United States. Other promising sorts not yet in general 
cultivation are Ruth, Saunders, Gibb and Rideau. 

The early experiments also included some attempts at crossing some 
of the wild sorts with cultivated forms. Trials were made with the smooth 
gooseberry (Ribes oxyacanthoides) and the prickly gooseberry (Ribes cynos- 
bati). The first efforts with the wild smooth gooseberry were not successful 
and were not repeated; by.and by hybrids were produced between the wild 
prickly gooseberry and the Warrington, a cultivated hairy variety of the Ribes 
grossularia, and among these there were several interesting sorts, one of 
which was quite smooth, another sparingly hairy and a third rather strongly 
hairy. This latter is still under cultivation at the Experimental Farm at Ot- 
tawa under the name of Agnes. It is an abundant bearer, of good size and 
fair quality. The bush has the strong upright habit of growth characteristic 
of the wild form from which it was derived. 


GRAPES. 

From 1868 to 1875 a large number of cross-bred grapes was produced by 
fertilizing flowers of the native and cultivated American grapes with pollen 
chiefly from those of European origin. During this period more than 3,000 
grape flowers were pollenized, and about 400 seedlings obtained. Many of 
these died from exposure to cold weather and many others were discarded 
as they fruited for lack of quality or productiveness, and only a few have 
survived. One of these is perhaps worthy of mention, viz., Kensington, a 
yellowish green grape. This was obtained by fertilizing the Clinton, an im- 
proved form of the native frost grape (Vitis cordifolia) with pollen of the 
Buckland’s Sweetwater, a variety of Vitis vinifera, a large, greenish white 
grape, grown under glass. The Clinton vine is a robust grower, very hardy, 
and in fruiting produces a cluster which is small to medium in size, long, 
narrow, very compact, and slightly shouldered. The berry is small, round 
and black, and quite acid. The Buckland’s Sweetwater is a less vigorous 
grower, is tender; the berries are large, pale yellowish green, oval in form 
and sweet, while the bunch is large and loose. The cross resembles the 
Clinton in vigor of growth and hardiness of vine, also in the character of the 
foliage. The fruit resembles the Buckland’s Sweetwater in color, form, size 
and looseness of cluster, and in quality it is intermediate between the parents. 
In the fruit of the Clinton the seeds are short, while those of the Buckland’s 
Sweetwater are longer and less plump. In Kensington the seeds resemble 
in form those of the Buckland’s Sweetwater. 


RASPBERRIES. 
The first crosses in raspberries were made in 1869, and work in this di- 
rection has been continued at intervals up to the present time. In 1870 a cul- 
tivated form of the Black Cap raspberry (Rubus occidentalis) known as the 


134 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 


Doolittle Black Cap was fertilized with pollen of the Philadelphia, a red rasp- 
berry, a form of Rubus strigosus. The black raspberry propagates by rooting 
from the pendulous tips of the branches, while the red raspberry sends up 
suckers from buds developed on the roots, and the roots extend under the 
surface to a considerable distance from the base. Twenty-four plants were 
raised from this cross, all of which fruited in 1873, and some of them were 
very prolific. In every instance the seedlings rooted from the tips, but not 
freely, and in two or three instances an occasional sucker was thrown up from 
the roots a few inches from the crown. Subsequently these plants were 
propagated more freely by layering in spring the canes of the previous sea- 
son’s growth, when they rooted at almost every joint. The fruit of the 
best of these hybrids was larger than that of either of the parents. In color 
it was intermediate, being a dark purple, with a whitish bloom. The flavor 
was a striking combination of the characteristics of both parents. During 
the following four or five years many additional crosses were made. Among 
others, the raspberry (/tubus strigosus) was crossed with the blackberry 
(Rubus villosus). Most of these efforts failed, but seeds were several times 
produced. Usually these did not germinate; but once or twice, when one 
or two of the seeds did start, the plants were weakly and died before much 
growth was made. 
BLACK CURRANT AND GOOSEBERRY. 

After this work of cross-fertilizing had been continued for a number of 

years the seedlings accumulated to such an extent that it was difficult to find 


Cross of Black Currant 2 with Gooseberry fot (One-half natural size.) 


room for them, and further work was for a time suspended. After receiving 
the appointment of Director of Experimental Farms, in 1886, a larger field 


PLANT BREEDING IN CANADA. 135 


for such work was opened, and in 1887, when I removed from London, 
Ontario, to Ottawa, I took with me all the surviving seedlings of promise, 
about 800 in all, and since then a large proportion of these has been discarded 
and a number of new forms produced. Among the newer forms of a spe- 
cially interesting character are crosses between the black currant (Rib s 
nigrum) and a cultivated variety of the gooseberry (Ribes grossularia). In 
each instance the black currant was chosen as the female, and twenty-eight 
of these hybrids were produced, all very similar in character. The branches 
of the black currant are without thorns, while those of the gooseberry are 
thorny. The hybrids have the branches thornless. In the form and serra- 
tion of the leaves and in the hairiness of the stem at the base they are in- 
termediate in character. The leaves of the hybrids are odorless. 

The flowers of the black currant are in bunches of from seven to twelve. 
In the gooseberry they are usually in pairs, but sometimes they are three in 
a cluster. In the hybrids they are in clusters of from four to seven. The 
impress of intermediate character in the hybrids is also seen in the structure 
of the pistil. In the black currant this is single and smooth throughout and 
thickened toward the tip, which is flat and blunt. In the gooseberry the 
pistil is longer and divided to the base, each branch slender and very hairy 
at base for nearly half its length, the slender branches diverging toward the 
tip. In the hybrids the pistil is single for about half its length or more, less 
hairy toward the base and divided toward the tip, with divisions divergent. 
The hybrids are also intermediate between the gooseberry and black currant in 
the time of their blooming. 

These hybrids bloom freely every season, but scarcely ever set any fruit. 
One year three berries in all were formed, and two other vears one berry only 
These were borne singly, like the gooseberry; were about the size of a 
large black currant and of a dull reddish color. The seeds of these berries 
were carefully saved and sown, but none of them germinated. Clusters of 
the flowers have been artificially fertilized with pollen from flowers on the 
same bush, also from flowers of the black currant and of the gooseberry, 
but without success. 

The Gooseberry Saw-fly (Nematus ribesii), which is not known to eat 
the foliage of the black currant, feeds freely on the leaves of the hybrids, 
which, although raised from seeds of the black. currant, are recognized by 
this insect as partaking of the nature of the gooseberry. The Gooseberry Mil- 
dew (Sphacrotheca mors-uvae) also, which is not known to affect the black 
currant, grows freely on the hybrids. 


EXPERIMENTS WITH CEREALS. 


As tne summer season in many parts of Canada is comparatively short 
early ripening varieties of grain are desired. Hence, efforts have been made 
to obtain early ripening sorts from other countries, notably from the northern 
parts of Russia, and from India. Several early varieties of wheat have been 
introduced, but they have proved deficient in vigor and productiveness, and 
the grain has not been as good in quality as the best sorts in cultivation here. 
Crosses have been made of these early sorts with the Red Fife and White 
Fife, with the view of combining the vigor, productiveness and high quality 


136 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 


of the Fifes with the earliness of the other varieties. Many of these crosses 
ripen from three to four days earlier than the Fife wheats, and some of them 
have manifested great vigor and productiveness. They produce an excellent 
hard wheat, which makes almost, if not quite, as good flour as the much es- 
teemed Red Fife. 

In productiveness one of the crosses named Preston has taken the lead. 
This was produced by crossing the Red Fife with a Russian variety known 
as Ladoga. Ladoga is a week earlier in ripening than Red Fife. Preston is 
about four days earlier than Red Fife, and during a test covering six years 
it has given an average crop, taking the results of the tests at all the Ex- 
perimental Farms, of 33 bushels 58 pounds per acre; whereas the Red Fife, 
sown under like conditions, during the same period gave an average of 32 
bushels 30 pounds, a difference in favor of the cross-bred sort of 1 bushel 28 
pounds per acre. Many other of the cross-bred sorts have also made ex- 
cellent records. 

In the growing of wheats there seems to be a tendency toward bearded 
forms. Where a bearded wheat has been used as the female and a beardless 
type as male a large proportion of the progeny has been bearded. Variations, 
however, occur in both bearded and beardless sorts; the beardless forms fre- 
quently producing bearded heads, while the bearded ones more rarely produce 
those which are beardless. In one cross, where both parents were beardless, 
several bearded sorts were produced in the second generation. The varieties 
will vary in the length and stiffness of the beards, and many of them vary 
in the color of the chaff, some in the same cross having white chaff, otaers 
red. The chaff also varies as to its smooth or downy character. Any of these 
variations may be made permanent by persistent selection. Spring wheats 
have been pollenized by winter sorts; these have all ripened when sown in 
the spring, but, although the plants have had vigorous foliage, they have 
been slow in heading and later in ripening than most other spring wheats; 
and as they have not been especially productive most of them have been 
discarded. 

In breeding for earliness, the best results have been had with a wheat 
known as the Gehun crossed with the Onega. The Gehun wheat was obtained 
from a high elevation in the Himalaya Mountains. The Onega was brought 
from the Onega River, near Archangel, one of the most northerly wheat dis- 
tricts in Russia. Two of these crosses, Early Riga and Harold, have been fully 
a week earlier in ripening than Red Fife, but the grain is small and the crop is 
not heavy. In our experience, any marked advantage gained in a variety of 
wheat in the way of early ripening usually involves a lessening of the weight 
of the crop. 

Some very interesting varieties have been recently originated at the 
Central Farm by fertilizing the Red Fife with pollen of the Polish wheat 
(Triticum polonicum). Vhis cross was effected by Dr. C. E. Saunders, after 
several previous ineffectual trials, in the spring of 1900. From the cross- 
fertilized kernel in the Red Fife head a plant was produced which, in root, 
contrary to the usual experience, grew heads and kernels quite unlike Red 
Fife. The seed from this sown in 1902 sported much and gave a number 
of different sorts of heads. Of tne plants produced no two were alike. ‘The 


PLANT BREEDING IN CANADA. 137 


object in crossing these two varieties of wheat was to try to produce a good 
cropping wheat having a kernel much larger than the ordinary sorts. 

Barley. Very distinct hybrids have been produced between the two- 
rowed barley (Hordeum distichon) and the six-rowed (Hordeum he-xasti- 
chon.) ‘These are ancient types, which have long been regarded as distinct 
species. In the two-rowed barley the additional rows on the six-rowed form 
are represented by chaffy scales, lying flat on the face of the head. In the 
hybrids produced by using the six-rowed form as the male these chaffy scales 
are in some instances all filled; in others only a portion of them are filled, 
and the kernels are often smaller and thinner than those found in the normal 
position in the two-rowed head. Witn subsequent cultivation the relative 
size of the kernels generally becomes more equalized, and in some instances 
they become very even in size throughout. Crosses have also been made be- 
tween the bearded and beardless six-rowed sorts. The two-rowed barleys 
stool much more freely than the six-rowed sorts; the heads, also, are longer. 
The main purpose in view in attempting to produce these hybrids has been 
to originate varieties of six-rowed barley with longer heads and an increased 
tendency to stooling, hoping to increase the crop thereby. Both six-rowed 
and two-rowed types have several times been produced from the same cross 
in cases where the two-rowed has been used as female, also where the six- 
rowed has been chosen for that purpose. Some of these new sorts have made 
promising records. 

Oats. In oats crosses have been made between those with branching 
heads and those with sided heads; also between white and black oats, white 
and yellow, and between thin hulled and thick hulled sorts, and many inter- 
mediate forms have been produced, some of which have given excellent crops. 

Wheat with Rye. Many attempts have been made at the Experimental 
Farm to cross wheat and rye, but without success until 1892, when a cross 
was effected by Mr. W. T. Macoun, a variety of winter wheat being used as 
female and a winter rye as male. The resulting kernel was sown in Sep- 
tember, 1892, and while to all appearance it was a wheat kernel which was 
sown, the plant which grew from it had the purplish character of rye, and 
the heads at the time of spearing had stripes of purple on the spikelets, as 
in rye, and in other respects the heads closely resembled rye. Nineteen 
heads in all were produced on tae plant, but not a kernel could be found 
in any of them. 

Pease. The most useful and productive sorts of field pease have been 
crossed and a large number of new sorts originated, about 175 in all; but 
by careful selection and the rejection of all those of less promise the num- 
ber has been greatly reduced. There are, however, 33 of these cross-bred 
sorts still under trial, some of which have yielded remarkably well. 

The number of new varieties of cereals which have been produced and 
tested is more than 7oo. A large number of these have been rejected, 
mainly because they were not sufficiently productive. 


VARIOUS. 


Barberries. Interesting crosses have also been made by Dr. C. E. Saun- 
ders between Berberis Thunbergii and the common purple barberry, Berberis 


138 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 


vulgaris purpurea, in which the influence of both sexes is seen in the progeny. 
A number of new forms have been obtained in the second generation. 

A series of new varieties of Pyrus have been produced by crossing Pyrus 
Maulei with a brilliant flowering, semi-double form of Pyrus japonica. These 
new crosses are intermediate in size of bush between the two parents, and 
those which have flowered have been found to vary much in the size and hue 
of the blossoms. Among these is one very handsome form, with the flowers 
large, semi-double, and of a brilliant scarlet color. (Plate Fig. 5.) 

Sand Cherry and Plum. The Sand Cherry, Prunus pumila, was chosen 
as the starting point for another line of experimental work. Attempts were 
made to cross this with different varieties of cherry, without success; but a 
cross was effected in 1896 with a variety of the cultivated plum known as 
Col. Wilder, an improved form of Prunus americana. 

The fruit of this hybrid, which has been named Rupert, is nearly round, 
about 13-16 of an inch in diameter. In color it is a bluish black; flesh, melt- 
ing and almost sweet; flavor, delicate and agreeable. The skin is quite 
astringent, and somewhat disagreeable when chewed. The stone is elongated 
and resembles that of the plum. Ripe, September 7th. (Plate Fig. 1.) 


PYRUS BACCATA AND APPLE HYBRIDS. 

When the branch Experimental Farms were established in the Canadian 
Northwest experiments were at once begun, on a rather extensive scale, with 
both large and small fruits, special attention being paid to varieties of the 
apple. During the first eight or nine years about 200 of the hardiest sorts 
obtainable in Northern Europe and elsewhere of cultivated apples were thor- 
oughly tested, but with little or no success. In 1887 seed was obtained from 
the Royal Botanic Gardens at St. Petersburgh of a small wild Siberian crab 
known as the Berried Crab (Pyrus baccata). Young trees raised from this 
seed were sent to the Western Experimental Farms at Brandon, Man., and 
Indian Head, N. W. T., and were found to be entirely hardy. During a test 
of thirteen years they have never been injured by winter, but the branches 
have grown from the terminal buds every season. They have fruited abun- 
dantly, but the fruit is very small—not much larger than a cherry—astringent, 
and sometimes bitter. The trees were dwarf in habit, of sturdy growth and 
thickly branched, with branches extending close to the ground. From their 
build they are well adapted to resist the winds to which trees are exposed 
on the Northwest plains. 

After four or five years of experience had thoroughly established the 
character of this tree for extreme hardiness efforts were made to improve 
the size and quality of the fruit by cross-fertilizing the Pyrus baccata with 
many of the hardiest sorts of apples grown at Ottawa. This work was begun 
in 1894, and has since been continued along many different lines. In 1899 
36 of these seedlings fruited, and five of them were of such size and quality 
as to justify their being propagated for more general test. Since then about 
50 of these cross-breds have fruited, and the number of varieties worthy of 
cultivation has been considerably increased. Most of the promising sorts 
have been tested for two or three years at each of the Northwest Farms, and 
have shown no indications of tenderness. The trees which are cross-bred 
seem to be quite as hardy as the wild forms of Pyrus baccata, and there is 


4. Columbia Apple (Pyrus baccata with Broad Green). 
2. Alberta Apple (Pyrus baccata with Haas). 5. Cross of Pyrus Maulei ie with P. japonica. 
8. Charles Apple. (Pyrus baccata with Tetofsky). 6. Pyrus baccata. 


1, Rupert Cherry (Prunus pumila Q Col. Wilder Plum <j‘). 


140 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 
every reason to expect that they will prove generally hardy throughout the 
Northwest country. 

Prince—P. baccata with Tetofsky—is one of the varieties which has 
fruited for the first time this season. The tree is a strong grower and very 
productive. Fruit, 1% to 15 inches across and 1% to 13g inches deep. 
Color, bright red (much deeper in color on the side exposed to the sun), with 
a few paler dots and streaks. Calyx dropped in most specimens; stem, I to 
1% inches in length. Flesh, nearly white, juicy, sub-acid, somewhat astringent, 
which lessens as the fruit-ripens. Of pleasant flavor; compares favorably in 
quality with some of the larger crab apples. Useful for apple sauce or jelly, 
and fairly good for eating. 

Pioneer—P. baccata with Tetofsky—has fruited for the past three years. 
The size is from 114 to 1% inches across, and about 1%4 inches deep. Color, 
pale yellow, sometimes with a light pink shade on cheek. Stem about an inch in 
length. Calyx persistent. Flesh yellowish, firm, moderately crisp and juicy; 
sub-acid, with a pleasant flavor, astringency very slight. Ripe from 20th to 
25th of September. 

Tony—P. baccata and McMahon White—fruited for the first time this 
year. Size, from 1% to 15% inches across, and about 1% to 15-16 inches 
deep. Color, greenish yellow, mostly covered with red in splashes and streaks, 
with many yellowish dots. Stem about 34 of an inch long. Calyx persistent. 
Flesh yellowish, juicy, sprightly, sub-acid, slightly astringent, with a pleasant 
flavor; quality good. 

Manitou—P. baccata and McMahon White. Size, 1% inches across and 
134 inches deep. Rather distinctly ribbed. Color dull yellow, almost cov- 
ered with bright red, becoming deep red where exposed to the sun. Flesh 
yellowish, juicy, sprightly, sub-acid, with a pleasant flavor; somewhat 
astringent. Calyx persistent. Stem 1 to 1% inches long. 

Alberta.—Pyrus baccata, female; Haas, male. Tree a strong grower and 
an abundant bearer. Fruit: Size, 1 4-10 inches across, 1 2-10 inches deep; 
round, somewhat flattened; slightly ribbed; calyx persistent; stem about half 
an inch long; color, greenish yellow, with a bright red check. Flesh nearly 
white, juicy, slightly astringent (astringency scarcely perceptible when fruit 
is ripe). Quality, fair to good. Season, last week in September to middle 
of October. 

Charles.—Pyrus bacfata, female; Tetofsky, male. Tree a strong grower 
and a fair bearer. Fruit: Size, 1 9-10 inches across, 1 6-10 inches deep; 
nearly round; slightly ribbed; calyx persistent; stem rather long; color, a 
uniform yellow and very attractive. Flesh, solid, crisp, juicy, with a pleasant 
flavor, mildly acid and very slightly astringent. Ripe first week in September. 

Columbia.—Pyrus baccata, female; Broad Green, male. Tree a very 
strong grower and a fair bearer. Fruit: Size, 1 8-10 inches across and 1 6-10 
inches deep; somewhat conical; distinctly ribbed, calyx protruding and per- 
sistent ; stem of medium length; color, red, with stripes and dots of a deeper 
shade. Flesh, yellowish, lightly streaked with red; juicy, subacid, with a 
pleasant flavor, slightly astringent. Season, September and October. 

In one of these cross-bred apples, the Carleton, a cross of Wealthy and 
Pyrus baccata, the seeds are increased in size much beyond that of other 


PLANT BREEDING IN CANADA. 141 


¢rosses. Similar modifications have been observed in other cross-bred seed- 
lings. What changes such enlargement of the seeds may initiate can only 
be ascertained by following the seedlings through successive generations. 

To carry out as rapidly as possible the objects in view in this line of 
work, which is to provide apples of useful size which will be hardy enough 
to thrive in all the settled parts of the Canadian Northwest, the following 
methods are being pursued: 


First. The best of the cross-bred sorts produced are being rapidly 
propagated for distribution by budding and grafting on Pyrus baccata stocks. 

Second. A large number of seedlings will be grown from the best of 
these fruits, when occasional instances will no doubt occur of variation 
toward the male, which is the large fruit in the cross; and as far as this 
takes place further improvement in size and quality may be looked for. 

Third. By a series of second crosses the seedlings are receiving a fur- 
ther portion of the blood of the larger fruits. How far this can be carried 
without inducing tenderness of the trees can only be determined by experi- 
ment. The first crosses seem to be quite as hardy as the native forms of 
Pyrus baccata. 

By following the lines indicated there is little doubt that within a very 
few years a number of varieties of apples will be originated possessing that 
hardiness and quality which will commend them to the settlers in all those 
portions of the Northwest country where ordinary apples under average con- 
ditions cannot be grown. 


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS, 


In carrying out the work of cross-breeding at the Canadian Experimental 
Farms during the past twelve years I have had able assistance from several 
helpers. From Mr. W. T. Macoun, whose work has been chiefly in cereals ; 
from Dr. C. E. Saunders, who has given me much help along many different 
lines, especially in the crosses of Pyrus baccata. I have also received valuable 
assistance in the cross-breeding of grain from Dr. A. P. Saunders. 

Some crosses in apples were made by Professor John Craig (now of Cor- 
nell) during the years he held the position of Horticulturist at the Central 
Experimental Farm at Ottawa. These have not yet fruited sufficiently to 
permit of an opinion being formed as te their merits. 

Mr. W. T. Macoun, who succeeded Mr. Craig in office, has done much 
work in the cross-breeding of apples and in growing trees from selected 
seeds of standard sorts, with the special vbject of producing late keeping 
varieties of good quality which will be hardy at Ottawa. 

To the work of Mr. H. H. Groff on the Gladioli I need only make brief 
reference, as lovers of flowers in all parts of the continent are loud in his 
praises, while enjoying the beauty manifest in his new productions. 

In this hasty outline of the work done in plant breeding in Canada dur- 
ing the past forty years I trust I have succeeded in showing that many 
useful products have already been originated by Canadian workers, and in 
presenting some evidence of a coming harvest which is full of promise. 


The Chair: This comprehensive review of the work done in the North is before 
the conference. 


142 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 


W. M. Hays: I wish to remark, Mr. President, my admiration of the work that Dr. 
Saunders has done. He has told us in this paper something of the work that has been 
done in plant breeding. There are a lot of other things that he has done in just as com- 
mendable a way, and I am glad to speak a word about them. 


WINE FERMENTS 


A paper, illustrated by lantern slides, was read by W. B. Alwood, of the Polytechnic 
Institute, Blacksburg, Va. 


Dr. N. L. Britton took the chair. 

The following paper by W. Van Fleet, of Little Silver, N. J., was read by Secretary 
Barron, and supplemented by lantern slides of hybrid gladioli exhibited and explained 
by C. Van Brunt: 


_ HYBRIDIZING GLADIOLUS SPECIES 
By W. Van Fleet, New Jersey. 


In the following notes the term “species” is necessarily used in the horti- 
cultural rather than the strict botanical sense. For many years, through the 
kindness of Herr Max Leichtlin, Baden Baden, Germany, and others, we have 
been enabled to receive newly collected Gladioli from Africa and Madagascar, 
often in advance of their botanical determination, and at once used them for 
breeding purposes. For convenience it may be well to divide these newcomers 
into groups according to their garden affinities with well known species, and 
as a further preliminary it may be stated that only Summer blooming species 
and varieties having corms that keep well over Winter are desired by growers 
in this country. We have produced hybrids between the Gandavensis or 
psittacinus, as well as Lemoinei or purpureo-auratus sections, and such early 
flowering species as tristris, vinulus, trimaculatus, cuspidatus, ramosus and 
Byzantinus. Some of these crosses were. very pretty, but rather difficult to 
winter over without glass protection. Purpureo-auratus & vinulus and Gan- 
davensis  trimaculatus bloom in August and have long-eekping corms. They 
increase rapidly, have attractive characteristic forms and markings, but the 
comparatively small size and neutral flesh tints of the blooms do not rank 
them among decorative Gladioli. 

The largest group of new species comprises types allied to G. draco- 
cephalus. They come under the names of Cooperi, platyphyllus and various 
numbered forms collected during the last six years in Swaziland, Durban and 
Madagascar. The most promising horticultural type came labeled from Mt. 
Kilima-Noscharo, in Eastern German Africa. It is a slender but healthy 
grower, and has a fine spike, large hooded flowers, scarlet penciled with 
orange outside, and clear deep yellow inside, deepening into bright orange in 
the throat. Seedlings of this distinct form are under way, but have not yet 
bloomed. Platyphyllus has immense deeply ribbed foliage, looking like a 
vigorous young palm, before the flower stem arises, and a large corm having 
a hard woody covering. The flowers are rather small, red and yellow, pen- 
ciled with purple, strongly hooded, with the perianth so short that the stigma 
and anthers protrude, a characteristic shared by other allied unnamed species 
recently flowered. Hybrids with large flowered garden Gladioli have little 


144 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 


merit in the first generation, but improve later on. Already several hybrids 
of dracocephalus have been put in commerce by European breeders. They 
are not of a character to commend the type to beauty loving amateurs, being 
too narrow and hooded in form and blotchy in coloring. The best draco- 
cephalus hybrids we have seen were sent out under the name of G. hybridus 
asperus by Herr Leichtlin. They are- vigorous, well furnished plants, bearing 
10 to 14 broad, well opened flowers on a strong spike. The colors vary from 
orange to cinnabar red, penciled all over in intricate patterns with deep or 
prownish red. They are harmonious and attractive in outline and coloring. 
Some of the newer species of this group evidently come from acid regions, as 
they bloom early and ripen up their corms with great promptness. Hybrids 
obtained from them often show the same tendency, and a useful class of early 
bloomers may yet be obtained from this progeny. A tall-growing form of 
G. platyphyllus from Swaziland has green blooms covered with pencilings of 
bluish purple. By crossing it with the best violet blues of the Lemoine section 
we have made a start toward a “blue” class of a very distinct aspect. This 
form of platyphyllus is destitute of the woody corm coatings, and is of excel- 
lent constitution, having long and attractive foliage. 

The psittacinus group is of great interest as the foundation of the splendid 
Gandavensis strain, and through it of all the fine modern garden Gladioli. 
We have used psittacinus very extensively, and generally obtain brilliant red 
and yellow blooms, a dense long spike, and a rigid upright growth. G. igneus, 
decoratus, and the valuable new Quartinianus are of this type. The first and 
last are very late bloomers, needing the shelter of glass in late Fall to perfect 
the blooms. MHybridizing with selected earlier blooming garden varieties 
lessens this tendency and imparts much beauty of coloring to the stately habit 
and lusty growth of this useful group. G. sulphureus or Adlami is plainly an 
offshoot psittacinus. It blooms early in July and has a straight spike of 
medium sized clear sulphur yellow flowers, sometimes having a greenish tinge. 
Some growers say the sulphureus of the Dutch florists is different from 
Adlami, but corms procured under both names from various sources produce 
identical flowers. This yellow species or variety of psittacinus would appear 
a potential breeder for the much desired improved yellow garden sorts, yet 
persistent work, extending over seven years, has resulted in only two good 
golden yellow hybrids out of thousands of direct crosses bloomed. These are 
the product of Adlami Canary bird, the latter a fine American yellow Gan- 
davenis of rich color but crooked growth. The other seedlings all came 
red, often very intense, with a few creamy whites, although varieties with 
yellow predominating were almost exclusively used in pollinating. The two 
good yellows are large and fine, but of provokingly slow increase. Quartini- 
anus hybrids, especially with the new G. cruentus section, are very promising, 
the tall leafy plants being furnished with large and striking blooms chiefly 
red and yellow. 

The oppositiflorus group naturally follows, as many growers have little 
doubt that the original Gandavensis, known to be the parent of all our superb 
garden strains, was produced by a union of psittacinus with something of the 
oppositiflorus type, instead of with G. cardinalis, as so often claimed. We 
have grown many direct hybrids of psittacinus and its allies with oppositiflorus, 


HYBRIDIZING GLADIOLUS SPECIES. 145 


and floribundus that appeared quite identical with Gandavensis, as we have 
been able to procure the type, while on the other hand repeated attempts, ex- 
tending over many seasons, to hybridize cardinalis with psittacinus and its 
allies have uniformly failed. This is the experience of more than one Euro- 
pean investigator, and may be taken to almost conclusively settle the matter. 
Oppositiflorus, with its tall growth and many-flowered spikes, often opening 
18 to 24 blooms almost simultaneously, together with its delicate peach-and- 
white tinting, seems a most promising parent for producing fine whites and 
light-tinted varieties of the exhibition type, but our own profuse trials, as 
well as the results of many contemporary breeders’, show an appalling amount 
of chaff to very few grains of wheat. The results of the first two generations 
of hybridity are almost nil in a decorative sense, but the third consecutive 
pollenization with the best modern white and very light kinds has developed 
some very pretty and hopeful new varieties. The looked-for high-class pure 
white has not come by this means, though an almost stainless oppositiflorus 
was used at the beginning and rigid selection since maintained. Really clear 
whites have appeared from psittacinus and drachocephalus, hybridized with 
oppositiflorus, showing very strong pollen influence, but they have little vital- 
ity and low powers of perpetuation. Floribundus appears the more promising 
of the two as a parent, though inclined to transmit red coloring to its seed- 
lings. Its hybrids are more likely to bear flowers facing one way than oppositi- 
florus, which takes its name from the distichous or two-ranked manner in 
which the blooms are borne. The only other useful member of this group 
known to us is a new one which came labeled “narrow-leaved species from 
Swaziland.” The corm had evidently been collected when immature, and lay 
dormant two years, at last producing a long spike—32 flowers—of very short 
and small blooms, pale lilac with feathery markings of a deeper shade. ‘The 
blooms face one way and open well together. It is a very late blooming sort, 
but a few hybrids were secured which are now well under way. All growers 
of Gladioli of the Gandavensis type know there is a constant preponderance of 
the red varieties. The white and light colors tend to degenerate with greater 
or less rapidity, while the reds increase in number and maintain their vigor. 
So rapid and complete is the reversion in some instances as to amount to 
wholesale atavism. Considerable numbers of a choice Gandavensis variety 
have, propagated for generations in the usual manner from cormels, changed 
in a season so as to closely resemble the typical red and yellow Gandavensis. 
This seems to confirm Mendel’s theory of dominant and recessive factors in 
all hybridizations. Taking psittacinus as the dominant, oppositiflorus acts in 
most instances as the recessive type, and tends rapidly to efface itself in favor 
of its virile partner during reproduction by seeds, and to a lesser degree 
during extension of a given hybrid plant by cormel or bud propagation. 
Gladiolus purpureo-auratus is well known to be the foundation of the 
popular Lemoine and Nanceianus strains of commercial varieties 2nd G. 
Papilio of the “blue” Lemoinei kinds. These latter comprise a number of 
attractive heliotrope and purple-blue shades in the typical hooded form of the 
parent. Papilio albus is a handsome slender-growing variety, reproducing it- 
self perfectly from seed. It is very pure white in color, with a crimson purple 
blotch. Crossed with the best whites among the Gandavensis and Lemoinei 


146 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 


sections it produces a few attractive and distinct new light garden forms amid 
a great proportion of inferior ones. We regard it as promising and will con- 
tinue work among its dilute hybrids, of which we are now approaching the 
fourth generation. 

The species typified by G. Saundersi are of the first importance. Saundersi, 
in the hands of Herr Leichtlin, gave us the magnificent strain known in com- 
merce as Childsii, still of the very highest commercial value, and the large- 
flowered, brilliantly-colored Nanceianus sections, produced by the Messrs. 
Lemoin by crossing purpureo-auratus hybrids with the new species. Leichtlin 
used pollen from the finest procurable Gandavensis varieties on Saundersi, and 
the result is a class of gigantic, richly-colored kinds mostly of red tints, with 
widely expanded blooms having a nodding upper segment. When the reverse 
cross is made, and ovules of Gandavensis fertilized with Saundersi pollen, the 
result is far less striking. This has been verified by many thousand personal 
trials. G. Leichtlini is a dwarf early-blooming species, with pretty red flowers 
having a yellow mottled throat. It is closely allied to Saundersi and the fol- 
lowing species, and crosses readily with both. One would consider it a prom- 
ising breeder, from the dainty aspect of its wide-open blooms, but it has in 
our hands proved quite disappointing. Hybrids with Gandavensis, Lemoinei 
and Nanceianus types, with very few exceptions, lose individuality, whether 
the seed or pollen is taken from the species, and are a woefully commonplace 
lot. Crossed with Saundersi or cruentus, however, a beautiful and vigorous 
progeny results, quite intermediate in either case. They are early blooming, 
and being sterile are wonderfully profuse in bloom. Lemoine’s Glaiéuls pré- 
coces look much like some G. Leichtlini hybrids, but it is understood that 
sulphureus is a parent to some of them. 

Cruentus is a particularly showy species, very distinct, though allied to 
the preceding both from the botanist’s and gardener’s standpoint. While 
vigorous and profuse in bloom, if its requirements are satisfied, it must be 
considered a particularly “miffy” species for general cultivation. Though 
known for many years it no sooner appears in a dealer’s catalogue than it is 
taken out for want of stock. Orders for corms of this species are filled with 
almost anything but the true article, and much disappointment has resulted 
among.breeders and fanciers in consequence. If healthy corms are planted in 
nearly pure sand, with a stratum of peat for a root run, kept fairly moist, and 
the plants afforded plenty of sun, they make strong, leafy plants and bloom 
finely, but resent any suspicion of clay, and seldom thrive in rich garden soil. . 
My European correspondents report indifferent results from crossing cruentus 
with other species and garden varieties, the seedlings falling off from the 
parents in substance or coloring. This is our own experience in the main, but 
the first batch of hybridized seedlings yielded the truly magnificent variety 
since known as G. hybridus princeps. It came from seed of cruentus 
Childsii, the childsii being, as above noted, Saundersi & Gandavensis. It is 
not necessary to describe Princeps further than to say it almost exactly repro- 
duces cruentus in its scarlet-crimson coloring, with white and cream feather- 
ings in the lower segments, but the flat circular flower is expanded to six 
inches in diameter both ways, the plant is doubled in size in all its parts, re- 
taining the dark green lustrous and profuse foliage, and is of a vigor of 


HYBRIDIZING GLADIOLUS SPECIES. 147 


growth and virility of increase hitherto unknown in the genus. It appears 
to succeed wherever tested, and can be doubtless grown anywhere and in any 
soil. A peculiarity of cruentus in developing its flower spikes after the first 
buds open is fully retained. When the spike first appears it is short and 
blunt, looking as if only a few blooms would develop, but growth proceeds 
until often 19 to 22 of these immense flowers are open, the last being about 
as large and perfect as the first. This progressive growth continues in water, 
if frequently changed, almost as perfectly as on the plant. From two to four 
blooms are fully expanded at the same time, thus giving a flowering period 
of nearly five weeks for a plot of Princeps, taking into consideration the suc- 
cessive side spikes and extra flowering growths sent up from strong corms. 
During this period, from the first of August to near the middle of September, 
a bed of this variety rivals in brilliancy an equal expanse of scarlet salvias. 

Attempts to reproduce Princeps by repeating the original cross have 
always failed, but many good flowers have since resulted, some of which seem 
worthy of perpetuation. Some odd fawn and ash colors result when crossed 
with species of the psittacinus and drachocephalus types. With oppositiflorus 
it gives a soft pink of remarkable profusion of bloom, possibly valuable for 
bedding purposes. The potentialities of cruentus will not soon be exhausted, 
and it is likely to be frequently heard of in the future. 

A few unique species remain, among which Ecklonii seems most practical. 
It is a little plant, growing 15 to 18 inches high, with a short spike of star- 
shaped flowers, dull white, profusely peppered with dark purple brown. It is 
delicate and likes plenty of heat, but the corms are quite large and are ex- 
cellent keepers. The first hybrids with oppositiflorus and light Lemoineis 
yielded strong plants, with long, many-flowered spikes, running into shades of 
wine and light purple-brown, covered inside and out with characteristic spot- 
ting of darker tints. The best of these singular hybrids, pollenized with 
Princeps and large-flowered garden varieties, have developed very striking 
large kinds with finely-shaped blooms of various pink and wine shades, with 
the profuse spotting well brought out. They appear well worthy of introduc- 
tion as soon as sufficient stock is secured. 

G. Ludwigi is an odd species of tall and very upright growth. The leaves 
are strongly plicate, resembling young palm fronds, and are quite hirsute, the 
pubescence being most strongly marked on the flower spike. The many flow- 
ers are dull salmon-pink, small and poorly opened. They are quite ventricose 
in form, and very late in appearing. Crossing with cruentus, the only species 
we could manage to get in bloom at the same time, has improved the form, 
enlarged the size, brightened the color and advanced the season of the bloom, 
while removing most of the pubescence from the plant, which is still very 
upright and plicate in foliage. It is not a promising species to work from, 
but we hope to keep at it until real garden improvement is obtained or the 
successive dilute hybrids become sterile. 

A most distinct and beautiful little Gladiolus species was sent us three 
years ago by Herr Leichtlin, whose collector found it among high cliffs in a 
little-known part of Madagascar. It is not larger than a Freesia in growth, 
and produces good-sized and elegantly formed blooms of pure bright yellow. 
The yellow is as good as the best Jonquil or trumpet Narcissus, and not the 


148 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 


pallid greenish tinge usually found in the genus. It is a Winter bloomer, and 
our best efforts have been made to switch it around to get Summer flowers, so 
as to connect with yellow garden kinds. The only species we have had an 
opportunity to cross it with its igneus, of the psittacinus group. One viable 
seed was secured, which has just produced a blooming plant. No yellow 
coloring appeared, the wide-open blooms being quite clear salmon. It is at- 
tractive in make-up, and may be of future service, though devoid of decorative 
value. If the yellow Madagascar species is ever obtained in quantity it will 
prove a treasure for Winter blooming. ‘The little corms resemble those of 
Summer-blooming kinds, and are good keepers. 

It might be supposed that during 16 years of active hybridization among 
Gladiolus species, resulting in over 150,000 seedlings, many commercial varie- 
ties would be produced. Although we have found beautiful and promising 
novelties in this mass of hybrids and variety-crosses, only two so far have 
been thought worthy of naming and commercial introduction. One is the 
Cruentus-Saundersi-Gandavensis hybrid, above mentioned as Princeps. The 
other is a direct cross between purpureo-auratus and Saundersi, known in a 
limited way in the trade as Lord Fairfax. It produces a long, curving spike 
of Indian-red bloom, with a yellow and purple spotted throat. These are 
often five to seven inches across, and look like Hippeastrum blooms arranged 
in a Lily-of-the-Valley manner. 


The Chair: I am sure the thanks of the meeting are due Mr. Van Brunt for this 
very beautiful display. Is there any discussion of the subject? 

H. F. Roberts: Mr. Groff himself, to whom Mr. Van Brunt referred, 1s a member 
of this conference, and is present with us this evening. He had the kindness to com- 
municate some very interesting facts to a few of us, and especially facts of interest to 
plant breeders. Perhaps this evening he would communicate them also to this audience 
and permit them to ask him questions. Perhaps he might speak especially of the case 
of the hybrid of the Morning Star. 

H. H. Groff: It was only a moment before the presentation of this paper that I had 
any intimation that I was supposed to make the lightest reference to my work here to- 
night, otherwise I would have had great pleasure in at least making some notes in order 
that I might give you something of the result of my experience rather than probably 
what you would consider a few disjointed remarks at the present moment. Before saying 
anything further, I wish to pay tribute to Mr. and Mrs. Van Brunt for the excellent 
artistic work that they have done in the reproduction of my. hybrids. I wish to say 
further that it is a matter of regret to me that I notice very few of those among them 
that I consider even the first class types of my productions, and, further, that I would have 
had great pleasure, if it had been possible, to see that such types had been placed at 
their disposal for reproduction here to-night. I must make a rather egotistical statement; 
from my own experience in testing the very best productions of the world’s greatest and 
oldest workers, many of these lead in a very marked degree anything obtbainable 
commercially. Before making any further reference to my own work, I also desire to 
pay a tribute to the excellent scientific work of my friend, Dr. Van Fleet. Dr. Van Fleet 
is the most experienced worker on scientific lines in connection with the species of any 
worker or breeder of the Gladiolus in America, and I am sorry that he is not here to- 
night to speak for himself in regard to many very valuable points of interest which he 
might explain to you in regard to the first crosses. As you have heard me say in the 
course of our meetings, there are two kinds of workers in the field of hybridization: the 
one who works with the idea of finding out the why and the how and wherefore scien- 
tifically, and the other for the purpose of producing definite results of a certain character. 
I may class Dr. Van Fleet among the former, and I wish to take a place among the 
latter, with the ideal of producing high-class economic types for decoration and of ap- 
praised value for perpetuation and multiplication. That is one of the great characteristics 


HYBRIDIZING GLADIOLUS SPECIES. 149 


of my work, great vitality, rapid multiplication and reproduction. You may well under 
stand that it is very, very important for the worker with hybrid forms, having produced a 
variety, that it should possess sufficient vitality and stability, not only to maintain satis- 
factory conditions at home, but also to reproduce itself in any changed conditions of soil 
and climate in any parts of the world to which it may be sent. This is one of the most 
vexatious questions with which we have to deal with regard to hybrid values. Compara- 
tively few are capable of reproducing their excellent qualities under the many changed 
conditions, the result of the great revival of horticultural activity all over the whole world. 
Professor Roberts has made some reference with regard to one of the questions of varia- 
tion. These questions are of great scientific interest to him as well as to other workers, 
and further, I have stated in conversation with my friends that the Gladiolus, having been 
hybridized to at least as great an extent as, if not greater than, almost any other plant 
form in the floral world, gives many object lessons which would be of infinite value to those 
workers in all the branches of hybridity. The case of sporting, so to speak, that I wish 
to refer to, was a named variety of Lemoine’s. I had grown it for several years, and in- 
creased it by purchase year after year from the originator. It was a scarlet, with many 
beautiful markings. After growing it for a year or two, one day I happened to notice 
that the upper petal and the two lateral petals from the midrib on one plant .ad changed 
to cerise. Knowing that this change was entirely different from such combinations as 
I had before, that is, one side red flowers and the other side white—in a case of that 
kind I would expect that when that bud came to divide we would have a bud producing 
a red stripe and one a white stripe, but in this you will see that the variation was a cross 
in the flower—I marked it out, kept it over to the next year, and the whole ground color 
of the flower took on the cerise color. I have multiplied that from the corms year after 
year, and it has still held true to its sporting condition. I have also bred it, so to speak, 
with light colors and have been able to produce lighter shades of the new color from 
this parent which may be very attractive. 

There has been in times past some reterence to the fact that I have not made public 
a great deal of the detail in connection with this work. I may say that the only reason 
for that is that I have never been asked, and further, that .he longer I work the less l 
feel that I have to say. However, I may say that my friend, Mr. Barron, in commenting 
on my exhibit at the Pan-American, which many of you of ccurse saw, characterized the 
exhibit as “Mr. Groff’s much mixed hybrids.’”’ I acknowledged the title and accepted it, 
and I told him that 1 thought it was a fitting term for the greatest nation the earth had 
known, the American nation. 


_ The following paper was read by C. W. Ward, and accompanied by lantern slide 
illustrations. 


THE IMPROVEMENT OF CARNATIONS 


By C. W. Ward, Queens, N. Y. 


I feel somewhat delicate about describing my experiments in breeding 
carnations, inasmuch as what has been said upon this floor during the past 
two days has convinced me that the bulk of my work has been done purely 
in an experimental way, groping, as it were, in the dark, with but little 
knowledge of the subiect. 

Until yesterday I knew nothing of Mendel’s theory and laws; in fact, did 
not know that such a man as Mendel existed, much less that he had discovered 
anything germane to the interesting subject of hybridization. However, after 
listening to the most interesting descriptions that have taken place here, it 
would seem to me that to some extent I have been dimly following Mendel’s 
theory during the past six years. I commenced the breeding of carnations 
twelve years since. The first six years were spent in indiscriminate crossing. 
always avoiding interbreeding because of the conclusion formed that it tended 
to weaken the stock. I must confess that during these six years very little 
progressive advancement was made, although a number of good commercial 
carnations were produced. Six years ago I determined to work according to 
a definite system, and to breed from definite shades of color and upon 
defined habits, using plants that produced perfect calyxes. After securing 
desired habit and color, my plan was to afterward get as large blooms as 
possible. In this I am at present apparently succeeding, and for the past four 
years the results seem to be progressively improving. 

I have divided the subjects for my work into nine classes, or sections, as 
follows: 

The Crimson Section, comprising the varieties General Maceo, General 
Gomez, Harry Fenn, Governor and President Roosevelt, which section now 
seems to some extent fixed, the greater percentage of the seedlings producing 
crimson blooms of fairly well defined characteristics. 

The Dark Pink Section is also fairly well established, as also are the 
Scarlet and White Sections; while the Light Pink Section is beginning to 
show signs of reproducing its kind. 

The Yellow and White Variegated Sections, as well as the Fancy Section, 
are not as well fixed, and I believe they will be very difficult to fix, as they 
are hybrids in the true sense of the word, being made up of characteristics 
common to several different types, and we must always expect in them a con- 
siderable variation. 


152 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 


The Blue Section has proven the most difficult of all, as the seedlings 
sport backward and forward between light lavenders and deep purples, the 
intermediate colors being largely a composition of pink and blue, some of 
them curiously and brilliantly colored. As yet I have not succeeded in secur- 
ing a true blue, the nearest thing being a lavender colored flower, in which, 
however, there was too much pink. 

In several crosses a number of curious seed sports have been produced, 
frequently a cross between two crimsons producing pure white blooms, and 
sometimes a delicate daybreak pink, the latter color invariably being slightly 
variegated with a crimson or purple streak, and frequently with picotee edges 
of the same color. This occurs where, as far as my records show, there has 
been no white or pink blood in either of the ancestors, and is probably due 
to the union of two like recessive characters existing in the ancestry, which 
have become dominant in the individual which we term the “seed sport,’ 
My studies of these variations in color seem to show that while there may be 
several intervening hybrids that do not show the dominant character of the 
sport, the character must, however, have prevailed to some extent at some 
period in either one or both parents. 

In carrying on my work not less than 50,000 hybridized seedlings have 
been grown, and while I consider the first six years practically lost, I have 
been pleased to note that the advancement has been rapid during the latter six 
years. During this period thirty-six varieties of commercial carnations have 
been produced and profitably grown at The Cottage Gardens. Of these six- 
teen have been introduced to commerce, four being crimsons, two scarlets, two 
yellows, two variegated with white ground, three whites and three pinks. 
There are now in my collection twenty hybrids that are commercially valuable 
varieties, divided as follows: our crimsons, two scarlets, two yellows, two 
white variegated, four pure whites, four dark pinks and two light pinks. 

My most successful work in the fixing of colors was accomplished with 
the Crimson Section. It is now fairly well established as a type, and is more 
constant than any of the other types, and I have noted that many other 
American hybridizers are using Maceo, Gomez and Governor Roosevelt in pro- 
ducing their crimson sorts. The progeny of the above varieties have broken 
into two different colors—crimson and scarlet. This may be explained by the 
fact that they were derived from Mr. Dorner’s Meteor, a good crimson, and 
the English variety Winter’ Cheer, which is a true crimson scarlet. The 
modified habit of Maceo, which I consider the most profitable commercial 
habit in existence, is being generally bred into the other sections, and in the 
end I hope to produce most of the desirable colors in carnations upon this 
habit. 

I have found, as a rule, varieties do the best near the localities where 
they originated, or in similar environments. Those varieties produced in the 
East have, as a rule, done better with us than those produced in the West. 
Inasmuch as we are working with a purely hybrid plant, the result of several 
hundred years of hybridization, we must expect that the recessive charac- 
teristics described by Mendel will be constantly reappearing in the way of bud 
sports. This is well exemplified by the various sports which have occurred in 
the variety “Mrs. Lawson.” I have known of several pure white sports, prob- 


THE IMPROVEMENT OF CARNATIONS. 153 
ably as many variegated, and one a dull scarlet. If we continue our present 
method of somewhat haphazard breeding we will, no doubt, not only have 
more of these sports in the future, but we will have varieties which will show 
great variability in many important characteristics, and possibly the cultivation 
of the hybrid carnation may become increasingly difficult in proportion to the 
carelessness with which we breed them. 

I am of the opinion that indiscriminate breeding on a large scale, while 
it may produce occasional good results, is largely a waste of effort, and I 
would heartily recommend breeding to secure a definite improvement. I have 
always kept fairly accurate records of the work done, and have proved to my 
own satisfaction that more uniformly better results were secured from the 
pedigree stock than from the ordinary indiscriminately bred carnations. 

As to the determining influences of the respective parent plants I have 
not been able to bring myself to believe that the pollen parent has a positive 
determining influence upon color, but where the desired color predominates in 
several generations of both parents it is comparatively easy to reproduce that 
color. I have also not been able to decide that the pistilate parent has a 
definite determining influence upon habit, but believe that the same rule will 
hold good as that mentioned before as applying to color. 

As before mentioned, in working for a definite result several intervening 
hybrids bearing but little resemblance to the type sought may occur. But, if 
the type sought predominates in the ancestry of both parents, the chances to 
secure it in an improved form will be increased. In my opinion the combi- 
nation of better culture with the improved hybrids has in a large measure 
secured our present improvement in carnations. I mention this particularly 
as I well remember the time when many of the older growers of carnations 
found fault with the modern hybridizer because he grew his carnations in rich 
soil or practised feeding the plants in order to secure better results. Much 
may be done to aid the improvement of the carnation by selection of propa- 
gating wood. After the hybrid has been secured it can be much improved by 
a skillful selection of the cuttings used to perpetuate the variety. This seems 
to be proved by the fact that we have been able to produce a fine commercial 
variety by selecting the strongest and best cuttings from an inferior hybrid 
plant, and continuing this selection until we secured a fine improved habit. 

During the course of my experiments I have become convinced that the 
condition of the plant at the time fertilization takes place has an important 
influence on the progeny. This has led me to do my fertilizing, as far as 
possible, when the plants are in the strongest and most vigorous condition. 
I do not mean to say that the plant should be highly fed, as where very high 
feeding is practised or the soil is overly rich it is very often difficult to get 
seed. But I particularly desire my plants to be growing in the best possible 
atmospheric coridition, and in a soil that produces a vigorous yet normal 
growth. I should not expect the best seedling carnations to be produced by 
plants growing under unfavorable conditions, but quite the contrary. The 
elimination of undesirable individual seedlings is practised to some extent 
before setting the plants in the field, this being determined by judging the 
plant for habit alone. 

Each year I find several good varieties in each class, and the question of 


154 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 


commercial sorts seems now to have resolved itself into selecting the most 
desirable variety in its class. 

At The Cottage Gardens we are working with a type of carnation dis- 
tinctively of American origin, the only recent infusion of foreign blood being 
Winter Cheer, which occurred about the year 1894. Some years since Mr. 
Dorner and myself used to exchange varieties, but about four years ago Mr. 
Dorner became of the opinion that little was to be gained by the exchange, and 
desired to keep the results of his work, fearing that I might become too much 
of a competitor if allowed to use his hybrids, and the exchanges were discon- 
tinued, but the results which I have obtained since these exchanges were 
stopped have been markedly better than before, and perhaps since that time I 
have been unknowingly following Mendel’s theory much closer. As stated 
before, I have known nothing of Mendel’s theory or law until the day before 
yesterday; but what I have heard here regarding Mendel has awakened an 
increasing interest in the work of hybridizing, and I shall secure his books 
and read them with the greatest interest, for if there is a fixed rule by which 
I can produce six inch carnations on four foot stems I certainly wish to learn 
that rule. 


H. H. Groff: I think the cause of Mr. \.ard’s failure was that he did not know the 
composition of the hybrid from the seed of Mr. Dorner, so that when Mr. Dorner sent 
him a light one he had no idea, of course, as, to what had produced it. In regard to 
the matter of producing light tynes from dark species, my experience reminds 
me of a point, probably the crucial point, of what might be called my system, for 
the improvement of like types by crossing them with the blood of other types. By way 
of example, let me say that I took 100 plants, giving a crop of s00 flowers of a certain 
kind, of European origin, which possessed satisfactory vitality; at the same time, the 
quality of the flower was not up to my standard, and the idea occurred to me of produc- 
ing better varieties of white—the demand being greater for that class of flowers than for 
any other. I proceeded to revitalize that with selected types, preferably of blue and yel- 
low. The result of those crosses is some of the finest light color that I have ever seen, 
satisfactory in every way, large, strong, vigorous and beautiful. Further, if I desire to 
produce a certain line of types from any existing either classified or unclassified species, 
my first work is to produce a satisfactory type from that snecies and to use that type as 
the foundation for a new strain or family, as well as a revitalizer for existing types. Now, 
if that species hapnens to be a red one, and I am using a strong white ‘bred from that, it 
is quite natural that among my white crosses I get a great many reds. I expect that, and 
many of these are reds of high color. st the same time, the efiect of crosses of that kind 
upon the light types is a great improvement in size, form, color, quality, disease resisting 
qualities and so on, until this year I had the satisfaction of seeing my light hybrids grow 
seven feet high from the ground. Of course, you have a great many discards, but at the 
same time it is worth while. 

C. W. Ward: In reply te Mr. Groff, I might state that in seeking for habit I have 
been following this system, my present system, for color only. The most valuable charac- 
teristic that a carnation can have is color. If it has a pleasant color it will sell; size, 
form, and everytuing else fades into insignificance beside color; color is the great thing. 
Now, I made up my mind that if I could secure the proper shades of color, the matter 
of size and habit would come afterwards, and I found that to be true. Now I have gone 
so far in the revitalizing of my strains as to go back and use single flowers, that is, tak- 
ing the single flower for the seed-bearer. Of course, in hybridizing carnations we are 
working for double flowers and large sized flowers. Mayor Grant, which was thrown upon 
the screen, was a seedling from a single scarlet flower, which was a descendant from an 
old variety named Portia, a small variety but a strong grower. We obtained the Maceo 
from the Mayor Grant, and that is the intermediate flower; that is, it is the flower from 
which we get the Governor Roosevelt and the other crimsons. Now, you will find in 
working carnations—at least I have found—I have done a little work in geraniums and 4 


THE IMPROVEMENT OF CARNATIONS. 155 


little work in melons, and in the melon work my experience was about the same as that 
of Professor Bailey—but I found in working carnations that where you inbreed, say you 
cross crimsons, take Maceo and fertilize Maceo, and you follow that up to the extent of 
making the foliage almost crimson, as soon as you got to that point there wasn’t any- 
thing left in the constitution of the plant; it was run out, in other words. I didn’t get 
any seed to speak of from it, and what seedlings I did get were runts. Now, I exercise a 
certain amount of selection in my seedlings. That is, after they show the fourth or fifth 
leaf, if the habit of the little seedling doesn’t suit me I pull it up and throw it away. 
Seedlings of a certain habit are of no value; and after three or four years of work I found 
that out, so we don’t waste any more work on them. But in carnations I found it nec- 
ecessary, where working within very close lines. to introduce influences from the 
outside; that is I take, say, a single crimson with a strong habit, and I will breed into 
that single flower ‘in order to get strong habit, and then go on with that; and I do the 
same with whites and scarlets, and all the way through. 

H. H. Groff: Allow me to report an experience with a double or semi-double type 
of gladiolus, the flowers of which when separated and placed in a shallow vessel of water 
resemble the Nymphaea. Usually that blood in many of my crosses has resulted in the 
preparation of seeds producing twins, and in one case, in order to prove the question of 
these being identical, I kept the first ones separate and found that they produced identical 
flowers. Since then, my last season results show the largest number of twins from single 
seeds that I have ever produced within my experience. 

C. W. Ward: I have heard that some hybridizers advocate keeping no records. I 
have religiously kept a record of every cross I made since 1894. Now I find those records 
valuable in this way: I don’t study them very much when I make my crosses, but after 
I have accomplished a resu - I can go back and find out how I did it, and there is the 
most value. Now I can trace every single crimson flower there back to Maceo or Gomez; 
and when it comes to the whites or any particular stripe, in tracing the pedigree you wili 
find that from the pedigree in both parents the color that you have had exists some- 
where back there. Now, when you find that you make a cross, for instance, between two 
yellows and you have got ten scarlets and three yellows, and if you go back you will 
find that the scarlet has been the predominating color in the pedigree on both sides. So 
that in just studying my pedigrees I have come to the conclusion that the closer you 
breed to a color the surer you are of getting that color; and that also holds good for 
fragrance. 

H. H. Groff: I also kept notes until after the production of over 5,v00 desirable 
types, and it became rather burdensome. 

C. W. Ward: I also produced a large number of desirable forms, but then I picked 
the best of the desirable forms. 

W. Bateson: I would like to know whether in breeding from the light sections you 
ever produced dark seed. Breeding from the dark sections you get to the light, but 
breeding from light sections, question, do the darks ever come? 

C. W. Ward: In pinks they uo; we get dark pinks. But I never got any crimsons 
except in dark pinks where the crimson existed in the pedigree. I presume that this Day- 
break pink that I get in the crimson comes in from Mr. Dorner’s work; I can’t trace it in 
mine. 

W. J. Spillman: Careful work of this kind is of immense value to the scientist, and 
I can’t help saying either that when these nractical men, who occasionally rather speak 
slightingly of theoretical men, learn the immense value in dollars and cents of knowing 
the why and the wherefore, and how to do it again, it will be worth a great deal to them. 
In other words, if Mendel’s law is true, it is worth millions of dollars to the breeders of 
plants in this country. If it is not true, it is vastly important that we should know it soon. 


President James Wood took the chair. 


The following paper was read by N. E. Hansen. 


THE BREEDING OF NATIVE NORTHWESTERN FRUITS 


By N. E. Hansen, Horticulturist, Brookings, S, D. 


All who are familiar with the climate and soil of the prairie North- 
west, and with the history of the fruit culture of this vast region, know the 
practical importance of this line of work. We must create a new pomology. 
Almost all the varieties familiar to Eastern fruit growers are tender and 
worthless on the open prairies of a large part of the Dakotas, Minnesota, 
Northern Iowa and the Canadian Northwest. With a view to meet this de- 
mand for hardier fruits the writer has engaged extensively in the work of 
. originating news sorts better adapted to the conditions. At present consid- 
erably over one hundred thousand fruit seedlings are on the grounds of the 
South Dakota Experiment Station as the result of this determination. The 
wild fruits of the prairie Northwest form the main material, although some 
work is being done with the apple. The methods pursued are simple, being 
mainly the carrying out of the principle laid down by Darwin, “Excess of food 
causes variation.” This is the star to which the wagon is hitched. Crossing 
and hybridizing are used as means of hastening the process of evolution by 
introducing new elements of variation. The chief reliance is placed on selec- 
tion from large numbers. Some of the crossing is done under glass to guard 
against undue loss from unfavorable weather conditions at the time of blos- 
soming. One of the main lines of work is the improvement of the native 
sand cherry (Prunus Besseyi). Over five thousand seedlings formed the ma- 
terial for selection in the first generation, and over fifteen thousand in the 
second generation, most of which bore the past season. Some of the seedlings 
bore fruit measuring fully three-fourths of an inch in diameter and of good 
quality, and this the third season from seed. My fall inventory will not be 
complete until digging time, but several thousand seedlings of the third gen- 
eration have been raised this year. Over seventy-five varieties have been 
selected as being worthy of propagation. These are being budded on native 
plum roots, and an effort will be made to breed them true to seed. Some 
extra large native seedling plums bore heavily this year. Also a few rasp- 
berry seedlings of half wild and half tame ancestry were selected. Some 
two hundred strawberries, also crosses between wild and tame, were selected 
from some eight thousand plants. The strawberries as brought from the 
Eastern States are not fully hardy in the northern part of South Dakota, and 
a hardier strawberry is much needed, Some interesting results appear; for 


158 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 


instance, the everbearing strawberries as imported from France winter-killed, 
but their hybrids with wild Dakota strawberries proved hardy. 

The field is a wide one and the demand for hardy fruits urgent. The 
practical importance is self-evident, since fruit culture is essential to true 
home-making upon the open prairies. 


RESOLUTION. 


Dr. N. L. Britton presented and moved the adoption of a resolution com- 
mending the movement inaugurated by the American Association of Agri- 
cultural Colleges and Experiment Stations toward a general co-operation in 
the study of heredity and the improvement of plants and animals. The mo- 
tion was seconded by Mr. Watrous, and carried. 

Upon the suggestion of Mr. W. H. Evans, the secretary was directed 
to transmit a notice of the action just taken to the secretary of the American 
Association of Agricultural Colleges and Experiment Stations, and also to 
send copies of this resolution to the horticultural press in advance of the 
publication of the proceedings of this conference. 


The following paper was read by T. V. Munson. 


ADVANTAGES OF CONJOINT SELECTION AND HY- 
BRIDIZATION, AND LIMITS OF USEFULNESS 
IN HYBRIDIZATION AMONG GRAPES 


By T. V. Munson, Denison, Tex. 


In this paper no attempt is made to prove its main propositions, which 
are put forth in dogmatic form rather than inductive, in order to be brief,-re- 
ferring to Bulletin 56 of the Texas Experiment Station in part for proof 
and to the numerous seedling and hybrid grapes produced in the United 
States and France in recent years, in which the parentage is known and 
published in the various works upon grapes as further proof and illustration. 
I also respectfully invite your attention to the photograpns of species and 
varieties of grapes I have placed in your exhibition hall. [This comprehen- 
sive collection of photographs was afterwards presented to the New York 
Botanical Garden.—Ep. ] 

Before we can well proceed to present the subject we should have in 
mind the object sought in improving grapes, which is, primarily, to get the 
best possible fruit in greatest abundance. This includes two classes of special 
considerations, namely : 


(a) To better the vine— 
(by better resisting disease. 
1. In length of life 4 by better enduring climatic extremes. 
by better adaptation to soils. 


(by sure and abundant setting of crop. 
2. In productiveness4 by capability of fully and evenly ripening. 
by persistence of berry to pedicel. 

(b) To better the fruit— 

1. In size of cluster and berry. 

2. In color and prunose bloom. 

3. In texture and quality of skin and pulp— 
(a) for table. 
(b) for wine. 

4. In number, size and freedom of seeds. 

5. In handling, carrying and keeping qualities. 

How may this complex object be obtained in the fullest degree? 

By sele:tion alone? No; for it would require an immense number of 
successive generations from an original parent to reach any great degree of 
excellence in even a few of the above mentioned requirements, and that the 
process of selection, alone, without crossing or hybridizing, becomes in and 
in breeding, which invariably weakens vitality and lessens productiveness, as 
seen in the Martha, Lady and many other pure seedling descendants of Con- 


160 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 


cord in the third, fourth, fifth and later generations. Besides no new distinct 
flavors or other characteristics, not already bound up in the original parent, 
can ever be obtained. All pure progeny of Concord are essentially Concord 
in character, the chief variation being in color, ranging from black to 
greenish, or yellowish, dull white; never red. This tendency to albinos indi- 
cates weakness in vitality. The best developed seedlings, by pure selection 
in any one particular point, would rarely ever be selected to continue the 
breeding, for, in general, such varieties are found to be ruinously deficient in 
having other good characteristics retained sufficiently to make them profitable. 
This single-line endeavor to get perfection out of imperfection is similar to 
trying to pour two gallons of wine out of a one gallon jug. But by pouring 
into a two gallon jug a gallon each from two one gallon jugs, each having 
a different kind of wine, two gallons of a different and possibly a better wine 
than either that entered into the blend can be poured out again. This, told 
in a figurative way, is what crossing and hybridizing may do. 

But will indiscriminate crossing and hybridizing, without selection, make 
any progress? No; except that it would produce forms that could never 
occur by selection alone. This often occurs in wild nature, and in many cases 
it is a step backward, so far as being beneficial to man is concerned, as seen 
in the crossing of popcorn and field or sweet corn, the mixing of pumpkins 
and squashes, etc. 

Then, will conjoint selection and hybridization serve a better purpose? 
Yes, most assuredly. How? Why? Just how, we cannot tell fully. If the 
process of intermingling varietal and specific characteristics were purely 
only a mixture we could better explain, perhaps, but there is something 
more than mechanical mixture. Subtile chemical changes take place, and new 
organic compounds are formed under the stimulus, and in the union, of 
specific bloods. New flavors, not found in either parent, come forth; new 
colors arise, new forms are built up, so much so, that often botanists would 
pronounce them new species, if found in the woods. Yet the critical, trained, 
analytical eye discovers the characteristics of each parent in the hybrid. The 
tongue discovers the two specific flavors; generally, the eye sees the blend- 
ing of specific colors. The mystery of two becoming “one flesh” the scientist 
may never unfold, but the wonderful fact remains for practical benefit. 
Further on, more of the “how” will be given. 

Why conjoint selection and hybridization serve a better purpose than 
selection alone, we may be better able to answer. : 

The very fact that crossing, or hybridizing, enables us to embody in a 
variety flavors, colors, seasons, chemical properties, vine characteristics of 
resistance to disease, adaptation to soils and climates, that selection alone 
could never reach, is one of the best reasons for employing the conjoint 
methods of development. 

The immensely greater rapidity and extent of progress the conjoint 
method permits is another very important reason why it should be employed 
wherever available. 

It may be clearly seen by a keen-eyed student of nature, as it is quickly 
learned by a practical originator, that to progress much in all the points 
. apped in our scheme for the best development of grapes (and these prin- 


SELECTION AND HYBRIDIZATION AMONG GRAPES. 161 


ciples, as illustrated among the species of Prunus, will apply quite as well in 
any genus of plants having several species, as with Vitis), it is very essen- 
tial to employ some rapidly accumulative methods which will bring together 
in harmony and stableness the information sought. 

The process might still further be speeded, probably, by uniting in it 
budding and grafting, which Professor Lucien Daniel of France claims will, 
in many cases alone, produce true hybrids—as between tomatoes and potatoes 
—among the plants grown from the seeds of the graft. Professor Daniel 
mentions many examples of such hybrids in his writings about his work along 
this line. I have never experimented any in this direction, and hence cannot 
say how it would affect in combination with cross-pollination. I would 
expect less stability in such hybrids, if we may properly term them such, 
than those produced in cross-pollination.* 

I have conjectured sometimes whether or not it is possible for double 
hybridization to take place in an ovule in a single operation by, at the same 
moment, having a spermatozoid from each of two or more species to enter 
the ovule egg-cell and fuse together with the protoplasm of the egg nucleus, 
thus combining the blood of three or more species all at once. As the blood 
of the several species can be eventually intermingled in one individual, by 
successive crossings, there would seem no physiological reason why not all 
at once, by applying mixed pollen to the stigma. But so far as the most 
painstaking microscopic scrutiny among the few species of plants examined 
reveals the process of fecundation by pollination, only one male nucleus has 
ever been found to reach and fuse with the female nucleus, although several 
spermatozoids have been observed lodged against the egg-cell wall of the 
ovule, and a number of pollen tubes containing spermatids have been seen 
at the same time bending into the archegonal chamber in the apex of the 
prothallus of the ovule.t It seems probable that the male and female nuclei 
are minute polarized protoplasmic masses. The germinal nuclei may be 
drawn to each other in a similar way that magnets attract each other.t 

The first spermatozoid to bore through the egg-cell wall by aid of its 
spiral ciliary band is at once focused in the magnetic pole of the female 
uucleus, which is much larger than the male nucleus, and drawn into it and 
fused together. The female nucleus seems incapable of focalizing on or at- 
tracting more than one male nucleus. They (the male and female nuclei) 
appear to have passed the stage of spermatozoids instantly at moment of 


*See also Mr. A. Jurie, in Revue des Hybrides Franco-Americains ou l’Isabelle de 
Poligny Hybride de Greffe. 

+H. J. Webber, in Bulletin No. 2, Bureau of Plant Industry, Dep. Agr. This 
treats of fecundation in Zamia, but by the laws of comparative physiology we infer that 
the process is similar in Vitis, in which the process has never been observed. The 
flowers are too small, probably, even for the microscopic eye to observe it. 

tThe Blepheroplasts, or specialized centrosomes, similarly to the rays of a magnet, 
curving back around and toward the central line of the central cell of the pollen tube, 
strongly suggest magnetic force, or a very near relative, controlling the life movements 
of the spermatid in the central cell, causing it to divide. But the formation of the 
ciliary band and the swimming in the cytoplasm by means of the cilia, and the subse- 
quent boring of the spermatozoid into the egg-cell, by means if its gimlet-like cone, 
suggests more than mere blind magnetic force. It seems to be more akin to intelligent 
or conscious pairing. 


162 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 


contact, losing all affinity for other nuclei, and start at once a new life, the 
infant germ soon to become the mature seed. In some of my accidental 
hybrids, at times, when trying to analyze them by their specific markings, it 
would seem impossible to explain them as resulting from only two of any 
known species, some of them apparently embodying.three and four distinct 
sets of specific markings, while their known mothers were apparently pure 
representatives of only one species, which stood surrounded by numerous 
other species, several flowering at the same time. Yet as nearly all our 
species of grapes show that they contain traces of mixture with other 
species at some distant past, reversion may explain these apparent complex 
hybrids by one generation. The theory of mutation, which appears to de- 
mand a causeless effect, I dare not appeal to until better proven. I throw 
out these thoughts for some of our younger, more scientific hybridizers to 
work upon. 

If it should be found that double or treble fecundation can occur with 
the female nucleus, and can be practiced by the hybridizer, le could accom- 
plish in one lifetime what would take generations to do by single pollination. 
The rate of development would be high geometrical, instead of arithmetical, 
or a low geometrical speed, as by present methods. 


THE LIMITS OF USEFULNESS IN HYBRIDIZATION AMONG GRAPES. 


In considering the first part of our subject, the objects to be sought were 
briefly pointed out. In general, we may say, that when all those objects 
served by hybridization of pure species are reached, we should cease such 
direct intermingling of pure species and proceed to select and cross-pollenize 
among the varieties already produced, to constitute a separate family, until 
we could work it into more desirable new varieties, all of a sufficient 
homogeneity to give a fixedness of type, that will yield uniform results, as 
in types of stock breeding (although live stock breeding does not make a per- 
fect comparison, on account of lack of species involved, unless we should 
include in it several species, as the musk-ox, the bison, the Indian and 
African cattle, etc., in the genus Bos). 

By thus cross-pollinizing we eventually can build more wonderful families 
of grapes for every season and use than the Old World has ever known 
among its thousands of varieties. 

There are some fundamental facts with reference to pure and mixed 
blood that, to keep in mind, will greatly aid the hybridizer in the proper 
conduct of his work of development. 

The purer the specific blood, known by the greater uniformity of the 
individuals of the species, and especially season of flowering, character and 
ripening of fruit, the more persistent to its type will it be in cultivation and 
in showing forth in hybrid forms. The hybrids vary much less from the 
parent taken from the homogeneous species than they do from the parent 
from the variable species. This law, or method of action, is well illustrated 
in quite a number of hybrids of V. rotundifolia (one of the most homogeneous 
species), with less homogeneous species and their hybrids, produced by me. 
Several French hybridizers, among them A. Millardet* of the Faculty of Bor- 


*Deceased since this paper was read, in 1903. 


SELECTION AND HYBRIDIZATION AMONG GRAPES. 163 


deaux University, who is one of the most scientific and noted living grape 
hybridizers, have noted this law in their writings. Persistency or non-variable- 
ness of character in varieties under differing conditions of soil, climate, etc., 
is very desirable, and it gets it undoubtedly from purity of specific blood, or 
long continued selection and combinations of those varieties that best resist 
the maladies contended against. Hence, on this account, it is better not to 
combine more species in one variety than is necessary to include the points 
sought. 


On the other hand, the greater the number of species, especially species 
of great variability within themselves, such as Vinifera, Labrusca, Lincecumii, 
estivalis, Bicolor, embodied in a hybrid, the greater will be its unstableness 
of character, tried under different conditions, so that each season being some- 
what different from every other, one can never beforehand be certain of 
what the variety will do. Still more will it vary in character in being put 
into different soils and climates, and hence is certain to be very local in its 
successes. 


To illustrate: Suppose that I should reason, like the quack doctor, that 
if I combine a great many drugs into a “pill” or “bitters” that it (the pill) 
would cure every disease, according to the theory that where one medicine 
would miss, another in the pill would hit, and conclude that if I should unite 
in one very complex hybrid all native American grapes that the complex 
hybrid produced would be a universal success; entirely overlooking the fact 
that the blood of extreme southern kinds would reduce the hardiness of 
the northern species against cold, and vice versa; that the species from the 
high, arid regions, where cryptogamic diseases cannot exist, intermingled 
with those in the lowland humid atmosphere would make hybrids that could 
neither resist much drouth nor the fungus diseases. So, the hybrid embodying 
all species, instead of being universally successful, would universally be a 
failure, just as is the quack’s stomach bitters. 


The true principle is to produce special varieties for special soils, cli- 
mates and uses. But in every case we want those resistant, as far as possible, 
to insect and fungus diseases. We want larger clusters and persistent, larger 
berries for market and table. We want those for wine that will produce 
abundance of must of special desirable qualities. How can such results be 
best secured for each region? Clearly, only by combining two to four species, 
if so many can be found, of the very best selections of each in the region 
to be supplied. This gives room for each hybridizer to create a special list 
of varieties for the peculiar climatic region in which he works. 


Here it may be acceptable to introduce some suggestive propositions. 


Suppose I should desire to develop a set of varieties best adapted to the 
hot, dry climate of Southwestern Texas, to grow in the very limy upland 
soils there, where the Phylloxera is natively abundant. Would I not select 
the large clustered, fine quality, Phylloxera-leaf-folder-rot-resisting, deep- 
rooting, lime-loving Berlandieri, and intermingle it with the best disease-re- 
sisting, drouth-resisting, lime-loving, large-clustered, large-berried Viniferas? 
Most certainly } would, as I have already done in a small way, with most prom- 
ising results, for a widely extended region in the Southwest. To give still 


164 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 


greater root power, with nearly all of the good points of the Berlandieri, with 
larger berries, highly colored juice, easy growth from cuttings and desirable 
flavors and wine properties, not found in either Berlandiert or Vinifera, native 
of the same region with Berlandieri, | would also surely use V. Champini, V. 
rupestris, and perhaps I’. candicans for special wine purposes. If, on account 
of the non-resistance of Vinifera to Phylloxera, the hybrids might not ke 
sufficiently resistant thereto, I would graft them upon Berlandierit, Champini, 
Candicans and Rupestris of that region, and continue to introduce into them 
the finer hybrid strains of native blood. 


So I would do for other regions with their native species in combinations 
with the best selections of Vinifera for such regions. The Vinifera we cannot 
afford to omit, as it is the embodiment, in fine qualities, of thousands of 
years of improvement. We can fortify its weakness with native blood, and 
besides greatly enrich its qualities for every use. Yet we have produced 
hybrids without any Vinifera blood of very good qualities for market, table 
and wine, and could, so I confidently predict, erect a splendid viticulture, if 
Vinifera were all destroyed. 

It is quite clear, from all our experience, that little can be gained by 
combining more than three or four species for any particular region, and 
those species should be, as far as possible, the best selected natives of the 
region to be supplied. This applies only to those parts of the United States 
east of the Rocky Mountains, for no other regions of the earth have any 
native species, except the Vinifera, suitable to yield any very good results in 
hybridization. 

For other parts of the world some combination of disease-resisting Amer- 
ican varieties with l’inifera promise the best results, as in France many direct 
producers, especially for wine, have been originated by combining lV’. rupestris 
chiefly, and V. Lincecumii with Vinifera, The French taste greatly dislikes 
the “foxy” and earthy flavors of the Lulrusca and its low percentage of sugar, 
hence eschews it for new-variety-making purposes. 

The primary specific selections should always be, as nearly as possible, 
from similar climatic and soil conditions to those to be served. 

If we should start with only one variety, or original selection, from each 
of two or three species of any particular region, and continue indefinitely to 
use these through a long course of selection and recrossing, eventually we 
would tend too much to in and in breeding to permanently maintain en- 
durance. Such seems to have been somewhat the character of development 
of many l’inifera varieties, while others appear to have come down purely of 
one species by a long course of pure selection; and I believe this too close in 
and in breeding has had much to do with the feebleness of many varieties 
of that class of grapes. Hence, for each distinct set of climatic and soil 
conditions we should have recourse to several different varieties of each 
species used, collected from widely separated localities of that region, if 
possible. 

For example: If we were endeavoring to produce the most desirable of 
market and table grapes for New England, the Atlantic Slope and the Great 
Lakes region, where tne flavor of Labrusca is relished, we would begin by se- 
lecting Concord, Ives, Perkins, Wyoming, Columbian and others of the best 


SELECTION AND HYBRIDIZATION AMONG GRAPES. 165 
types of Labrusca yet found, along with Clinton (an accidental wild hybrid 
of Labrusca & Vulpina, found in New York) and the best of the Taylor 
family (accidentally originating in Kentucky as a hybrid of Labriusca 
Vulpina), and we would include some of the very best of the I’. bicolor of 
Ohio (such as Kohr and others found by Dr. G. L. Tinker of New Philadel- 
phia, Ohio, who is most intelligently working to produce a family of Bicolor 
hybrids), and some of the large-berried, large-clustered V7. Lincecumii of 
Southwest Missouri, Arkansas, the Indian Territory and North Texas (such 
as Jaeger’s 43 and my Lucky, which have proven perfectly hardy in Massa- 
chusetts, Ohio and New York, and very resistant to rot and mildew), and in- 
termingle them by twos and threes with each other and the hardiest, healthiest, 
large-clustered, large-berried |’inifera varieties. 

Thus, several distinct families should be started, and from time to time 
various selections from these different families of hybrids should be chosen, 
according to their peculiar fitness for some special purpose or location, and 
combined to form secondary families, that would be decided improvements 
upon their progenitors. Such a large basis to use for development would 
serve for many generations, and the limits of evolution of colors, seasons, 
flavors, ete., could never be reached. Clusters requiring two men with a staff 
to carry them, as in old Canaan, might be produced, with berries on them as 
large as Kelsey plums! Who knows? If nature, by its haphazard selection, 
aided by the wild animals, produced the cocoanut, the banana, the bread 
fruit and the marvelous durion fruit of the tropics, what may not nature and 
man together produce, with scientific knowledge, keenly sharpened observa- 
tion and skilled technique on the part of man? 

As an example of cluster lengthening in two or three generations from 
varieties, none of which had half so long clusters, those of the Captain grape 
have come, and, withal, much better qualities. As an example of refining 
and compounding flavors by complex hybridization, I mention but one among 
a large number produced, of which this is an exact natural size cluster, repro- 
duced somewhat nearly in color. It is named Wapanuka, and contains in 
combination at least three species, and probably four, partly by accidental 
and partly by careful hand hybridization. 

This variety was produced by me by pollenizing my Rommel with Bril- 
liant pollen. Rommel was produced by me by pollenizing Elvira with Camp. 
bell’s Triumph. Elvira was produced by Jacob Rommel of Missouri from 
seed of Taylor, probably accidentally crossed by some Labrusca, unknown, or 
may have been a pure seedling of Taylor. Taylor was an accidental hybrid of 
some unknown Labrusca with some unknown ’ulpina. Its blood is proven by 
its characters being of these two species, without doubt. Triumph was pro- 
duced by the lamented George W. Campbell by pollenizing Concord with 
Muscat of Alexandria (Vinifera). Concord, as you all know, is a seedling 
of second generation by E. W. Bull from some wild Labrusca (“Fox Grape’), 
found in the woods by some boys near where Mr. Bull lived in Massachusetts, 
and given to him to taste. Brilliant was produced by me by pollenizing 
Roger’s No. 9 (Lindley) with Delaware. Lindley was produced by E. S. 
Rogers, the pioneer hybridizer of grapes in America, by pollenizing some 
large Labrusca variety, found by him in the woods of Massachusetts, with 


166 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 


the Golden Chasselas. Delaware, found in a Mr. Provost’s garden in New 
Jersey, clearly a hybrid between some Labrusca and either V. Bourquiniana, 
of the Herbemont type, or some Vinifera variety (Botanical markings are 
much more like Bourquiniana than Vinifera) ; or, speaking specifically, by pro- 
portion of parts, Wapanuka consists of the best strains of three or four 
species, namely: Labrusca, 8 or 9-16; Vulpina, 1 or 2-16; Vinifera, 
4-16; Bourquiniana, 2-16; It is slightly subject to mildew—less than 
Delaware—which it inherits from the Delaware and the Vzumi- 
fera, through the Lindley and Triumph. It has the delicate 
skin of Vulpina and Vinifera, thus proving that weakness survives in 
a variety through many generations; hence, the great importance of starting 
with varieties devoid of weakness, as well as with those possessing as many 
large merits as possible. While the Wapanuka has some weaknesses, it has 
the most delicate flavors and texture, making it exceedingly palatable, even 
surpassing the best Viniferas, although much more than one-half wild Ameri- 
can blood, and the vine endures the climate well, both in Texas and Ohio, 
without protection. 

I am quite sure that selection and hybridization conducted on the plans 
I have outlined. will make the best stable progress in producing all manner 
of varieties desirable for the table, the market and for wine, for every region 
where any two or more species of grapes will grow, and that has proven 
to be more or less of the surface of every country of any considerable size, 
lying between north and south latitude of fifty degrees. E 

The Chair: I am quite sure we all ‘feel indebted to Mr. Munson for his paper. It 


comes from one who has followed the work in this line for a long time, and the results 
of his labors are well known, 


The following paper was read by C. E. Saunders, 


NOTES ON SOME VARIATIONS IN THE SECOND GEN- 
ERATION OF BERBERIS HYBRIDS 


Chas. E. Saunders, Experimental Farm, Ottawa, Canada. 


In May, 1894, at the suggestion of Dr. William Saunders, Mirector of 
the Experimental Farms of the Dominion of Canada, the writer of this 
paper crossed Berberis Thunbergii with B. vulgaris purpurea, the former being 
used as the female. Five flowers were operated upon and five seeds ob- 
tained. These were sown the following autumn, and from them four strong 
shrubs' were raised, all of which are still living. They are practically identical 
in all respects, and need not, therefore, be discussed individually. 

Tne principal characteristics of these hybrids have already been de- 
scribed in a paper read by Dr. William Saunders before the British Asso- 
ciation for the Advancement of Science in 1897; and it is therefore unneces- 
sary, at this time, to refer to them at any length. It may be well, however, 
to present in tabular form some of the chief points of difference between 
the hybrids and their parents: 


rf 
on a Su a ees 
3 ed iS) = | 360 
fo Sg eh aD ag 3 Si 
fates ge ae is rae S HSPN) 
oe & Na Oo 8 « 2 O24, 

sa ZO o Os oO 3 
oa oe or nod fQ Oa 
Rather low 
Borne 


B. Thunbergii . . and Small Green None 


aa Scarlet, glossy 
| Spread ng 


singly 


i) Somewhat 


B. vulgaris purpurea Medium Dark Numerous In bunches Dark red, dull 


| upright purple of 17 to 21 
. Inter- Under In bunches * 
EA DTIGS) ote: ie.c0. fe es = 1 mediate medium Green Very few Of 5 to 10 Scarlet, dull 


It will be seen from this summary that in almost every respect the 
hybrids stand midway between the parents, neither the male nor the female 
seeming to have exerted a preponderating influence on the progeny. 

As the hybrids all produce seed in considerable quantity there has been 
no difficulty in raising a second generation of shrubs to the number of about 
a thousand. These are now growing on the Experimental Farm at Ottawa. 

Uniformity is the striking characteristic of the first generation; varia- 
tion is the predominant feature of the second. While many of the seedlings 
are not yet old enough to bear blossoms and fruit, they have already shown 


168 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 


numerous interesting departures from the uniform type of the first generation, 
the characteristics of B. Thunbergii coming out very strongly in some in- 
stances, and those of B. vulgaris purpurea coming out equally strongly in 
otners. 

The leaves of these seedlings in the second generation vary in size very 
much, being in some cases even smaller than those of B. Thunbergii, and in 
others even larger than those of B. vulgaris purpurea, the habit of the shrub 
frequently following that of tne species which its leaves more nearly re- 
semble. The margins of the leaves are in some instances free from spines, 
yet they are in some other cases provided with a larger number of spines 
than are found on the leaves of the parent hybrids. 

The color of the foliage is, however, perhaps the point of chief interest; 
for, while in the hybrids of the first generation scarcely any tendency to 
purple can be detected, the second generation gives numerous shrubs of as 
deep a purple as B. vulgaris purpurea (or, perhaps, even deeper), some of 
them having also large leaves and a vigorous, upright habit. The shrubs with 
purple foliage constitute about twenty-three per cent. of the whole number 
grown. 

The reappearance of this “recessive” character in almost exactly one- 
fourth of the seedlings is of interest in connection with Mendel’s observations 
on cross-bred peas. 


J 


The Chair: I have listened with a great deal of interest to this hybridization that Dr. 
Saunders has just spoken of. It stimulates the hope that there may be practical results 
of importance. For to my taste there is no jelly from whatever fruit that equals that 
made from the barberry, and if you can get something that will be productive of better 
results in this useful particular I am sure great gain will have been made, beside the 
incidental scientific interest of the work as it proceeds. 


The following paper was read by R. M. Kellogg, 


BUD VARIATION IN THE STRAWBERRY PLANT 


R. M. Kellogg, Three Rivers, Mich. 


‘No plant affords better opporiunities for studying bud variations than 
the strawberry. New plants can be Propagated and fruited every year, 
and while to the novice they all appear alike, yet a careful examination 
will show constant changes going on in its vascular system making it 
possible to greatly improve them through the agency of selection. 

Bud variation may be defined as any change in the vascular system 
of a plant which shall cause it to produce a different fruit either. in form, 
quality or quantity. 

To me it is surpassingly strange that the theory has been so generally 
accepted that all plants and trees propagated by buds are stable in their 
character, when the orchardist can find, not only certain trees but many 
limbs on bearing trees which produce different fruit for years in succession, 
and the berry grower can hardly walk through his plant bed without seeing 
a variety of types in fruit and a vastly different degree in their productive- 
ness. The complexity in the organism of the plant is as great as that of 
the man, and shall we say that a man born weak in parts of the body shall 
spend his days without change? Is not the college curriculum for the 
development of the brain and the gymnasium for the weak parts of the 
body? Was the athlete born an athlete or is he a product of development 
after his birth, Here we have no argument, but when it comes to devel- 
oping any part of the physical organism of a plant so as to make it produce 
different results, it is said that it cannot be done. This is an error which 
has misled the fruit grower and robbed him of the pleasures and profits 
of his business. 

For the past nineteen years I have conducted experimental plats with 
the view of devising means of developing a stronger fruit-producing organ- 
ism in the strawberry plant while in the nursery bed, and results of these 
experiments have proven conclusively that it can be done. 

From the first I have felt the force of the remark by Prof, Bailey that 
“We need not so much varieties with new names as we do a general 
increase in productiveness and efficiency of the types we already possess,” 
and so my efforts have been directed to breeding into the plant a stronger 
vascular fruit-producing organism by favorable environment and continual 
selection. To determine if such change could be effected, I made experi- 
ments along as widely divergent lines as possible, holding that if there was 


170 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 


no variation except as produced by manure and tillage and that of a 
temporary nature, we could subject one set of plants to severe strains and 
hardship and when restored to congenial environment they would produce 
fruit of as even type as the one continued under favorable conditions. 

Plants were selected of three varieties and grown on the same soil 
through a period of six years under the foliowing conditions: 

Plat No. 1 was manured heavily with nitrogen, the plants set close 
together and allowed to fruit the first year and mat very thickly. They 
were given no winter covering and the following spring were allowed to 
fruit all they could, and continued in fruit for four years, narrowing the 
bed each year and allowing it to mat thick again under the influence of the 
stimulus of nitrogen. 

Plat No. 2 having the same varieties were put in land rich in potash 
and phosphoric acid and very moderately so in nitrogen and grown in hills 
to preserve their individuality and enable me to more perfectly observe 
variations. The first spring they were given extra care in all respects. 
The blossom buds were all removed, the runners cut as fast as they 
appeared and fully protected with mulch during the winter. The following 
spring a careful examination was made for variations. Those having the 
most perfect crowns and general vigor were scaled and blossom buds 
except four on each stem removed te prevent excessive pollenation and 
when fruit had set, two berries only were allowed to ripen. The cone 
scaling the highest and showing the most perfect fruit was selected for 
propagating for plants the next spring. The selected plant was watered 
and induced to throw owt runners, which were potted and transferred to 
a special bed, where they were allowed to make runners for next spring’s 
planting, the same process being repeated each year. 

At the end of four years plants were selected from each plat having as 
nearly the same rootage as possible and cach variety set in alternate rows 
and all grown in hills under the most thorough tillage and carefully 
mulched during the winter. 

It is worthy of note that plants from Plat No. 1 made several times 
aS many runners, and when cut they persisted in throwing out others, and 
at the harvest time there was a very wide difference in fruitage in the 
individual plants both in quantity and type. 

From Plat No. 2 we found that when runners were cut, new crowns 
readily formed, and the fruitage of each plant was generally even and close 
to type, and this difference was very marked the following year. In the 
first case I had developed the vegetative organism of the plant so that its 
physical ability was directed to producing runners and foliage that I dia 
not want, and in the other I had created a strong fruit producing orggnism 
and a foliage strong enough to support it in assimilating all the food 
required by the fruit-producing vascular bundles, and by this system of 
selection we used only the strongest plants, while weaklings and bad vari- 
ations were annually thrown out. 

The general average of production among fruit growers is from fifty 
to seventy-five bushels per acre of inferior berries, and this very low yield — 
in quantity and quality is due to the manner of propagating their plants. — 


BUD VARIATION IN THE STRAWPERRY. 171 


Strawberry growers very generally practice what is known as the wide 
matted row, the plants being thrown around on the edge of the row by 
the cultivator so that sunshine is shut out from the crowns, and for renew- 
ing their beds it is a universal custom to take the plants which form in 
the path or alley late in September and October, giving them no adequate 
time to perfect their buds, and thus the vegetative part of the plant was 
stimulated and the fruit-producing organism repressed so that heavy 
manuring and tillage resulted in producing excessive runners and foliage 
without a corresponding increase in fruit. 

For my fruiting fields I have for years grown all my plants from idea 
or perfect specimens found here and there in the field, beginning the 
search for them in the growing season, and those most promising—showing 
large fruit crowns and healthy foliage—were staked and numbered and the 
following spring restricted by removing half the blossom buds to prevent 
pollen exhaustion. After fruit had set, only two berries on each fruit 
stem were allowed to ripen so that the form, texture, flavor and color of 
the berries might be determined. Each plant was scaled on the basis of 
one to ten, and the one showing the greatest number of points of excel- 
lence was given the “blue ribbon” and became the mother of all the future 
plants of that variety on the farm. 

The runners were potted and transferred to special beds, where they 
were given room for plenty of air and sunshine to further develop and 
stimulate their fruit-producing organism, and the following spring all new 
beds were stocked with these plants. 

To determine if resuits justified this process oi plant-growing, I sev 
plants from a neighboring plantation grown after the general plan of fruit 
growers, taking “alley plants” from the edges of the matted row, setting 
them in alternate rows with those thoroughbred as above stated, giving 
all the most thorough tillage and confining them to hills and hedge-row. 
There was a wide difference in the quality and quantity of the berries 
picked from the two classes of plants. As in the case of the first experi- 
ments, the selected plants gave at the rate of from three to five hundred 
bushels per acre, while from the plants of the second grade scarcely a 


hundred bushels were secured. 


It has been estimated that the strawberry production in the United 
States has now reached the enormous sum of ninety million dollars in 
reasonably favorable years. The demand is governed by quality or the 
pleasure experienced in eating the fruit, and so if growers can be induced 
to adopt the better methods of breeding their plants and giving them the 
benefit of modern research in tillage and fertilizing, the question of mar- 
kets would be solved by greatly increased consumption creating a demand 
that could hardly be met at largely advanced prices. 

The berry grower is now just where the stock grower was fifty years 
ago. Then stockmen talked only of breeds. If the pedigree was right, 
any sway-backed, knock-kneed, badly developed animal would serve the 
full purpose for breeding, but it is worthy of note that the splendid animals 
which now grace our barnyards did not come into existence until the 
individuality of an animal fixed its value. 


172 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 


At all our horticultural fairs and meetings we talk incessantly of 
varieties without regard to plant individuality. We never put stress on 
the physical condition of plants under test but class them all on an 
equality. New varieties come and shine like a meteor in the horticultural 
heavens for a season, and then through a want of restriction and selection 
of better variations, they produce fewer berries of lower quality, and finally 
drop out of sight while the new seedlings follow in rapid succession. 

In the not distant future our agricultural colleges will give us experts 
who will detect these valuable variations, and our nurseries will furnish us 
plants and trees handed down through generations as the accumulations 
of better qualities through constant selection of bud variation just as they 
are now doing in breeding corn, cotton and wheat. We must no longer 
breed our plants at random, but do it with a definite object in view. 

Let us have hybridization to secure initial changes and then, with the 
mind centered’ on the ideal, seek the slower process of bud variation as a 
means of developing and fixing in the plant the desired changes, and then 
we shall see the dawn of a new era in horticulture. 


H. F. Roberts: Have you made any crosses on any of these improved bud varia- 
tions? 

R. M. Kellogg: No, sir; I have felt that this is an age of specialties. I used to 
dabble in almost everything, but the last three years I have found all my time fully 
occupied in this one point. Take the popular varieties to-day handled by nurserymen, and 
you will find that they all center on less than twelve varieties that are leading popular 
sorts. This has arisen out of the fact that we cannot get a superior variety on an average 
of less than 20,000 seedlings, and it is true that these are required to be developed by a 
system of thorough tillage through many years, and that is the cause of the plants run- 
ning out. Strawberry growers never prune their plants. They never restrict them. They 
bear all the pollen they can, and seed bearing takes place, and it runs the plant out so it 
is physically unable to produce seed, and as the fruit flesh grows only as the supstance for 
the seeds to grow in, you soon run them out. Now, this has been my work: Simply 
building up in the plant the seed organism and consequent fruit development, and, there- 
fore, I have not paid any attention to new selections, but have taken those produced or 
found by other people and stimulated them by thorough tillage, plenty of air and under 
the most favorable conditions, using largely phosphates and potash—as you know, those 
stimulate the seed-bearing organism—and bring out the plants in that way. The state- 
ment has been made, I don’t vouch for that, that ninety millions of dollars are spent 
every year in strawberries, and yet I believe that one-half of that crop is lost, simply 
because of plants that by devitalization have been simply rendered incapable of bearing 
fruit. You prune vour orchards; you prune everything else; why shouldn’t you prune 
your strawberries? 


The Chair: We will have one more paper at this session that will not take quite all of 
our time, and so I ask Mr. G. T. Powell to speak to us upon some of the results obtained 
by him in bud variation in apples. 


BUD VARIATION IN THE APPLE 


Geo. T. Powell, Ghent, N. Y. 


Ten years ago I began the propagation of two kinds of apples, the Tomp- 
kins County King and the Sutton Beauty, upon the principle of bud selection. 
While at Geneva I observed on the grounds of Mr. S. D. Willard a Sutton 
Beauty apple tree, one portion of which showed decided characteristics in 
quality of fruit better than other portions of the tree. I selected from this 
portion of the tree scions, and top-worked too Northern Spy trees with these 
grafts from this Sutton Beauty apple tree of Mr. Willard’s. I have since 
selected from the trees thus propagated the strongest, finest buds from the 
most typical trees of the roo so started originally. 

I have to-day the current generation, that is, the result of the third selec- 
tion of the Sutton Beauty, each time selecting the finest type of tree, then 
studying the character of the growth of this tree and choosing the buds from 
the strongest, the most vigorous branches upon these trees. 

Now, there were three points in my mind in starting this work. One 
was to get vigor in the growth ot the tree. The second was to get uniformity 
in the character of the fruit, and the third was to obtain, if possible, the 
prolific tendency. So far I am very glad to report that all three points have 
been well secured, as this third result of the fruit which I have got. 

In relation to the Tompkins County King another very interesting result 
has been observed; that is, by top-working the Tompkins County King buds 
upon the Northern Spy tree, the constitutional weakness of the King seems to 
be strengthened ; that is, it seems io be eliminated so far, because, after eleven 
years, there is not the first evidence of apple canker appearing upon these 
young Kings top-worked upon the Northern Spy stock, while ordinarily in 
New York State at the age of eleven years there are from 15 to 30 per cent. 
of the trees so affected with the apple canker that they become practically 
valueless. I believe that there is a wonderful field in this direction; that 
there is as much difference in the buds upon the tree as Mr. Munson stated 
that there is in animals in breeding. I am very glad to give just these few 
words in these very few moments. 


The following paper was read by H. C. Price. 


HAND POLLINATION OF ORCHARD FRUITS 


H. C. Price, Horticultural State College, Ames, Iowa. 


To the plant breeder thoroughly endowed with a love of his work and 
appreciating the possibilities that lie before him, the Northwest offers an 
enchanting field for labor. The prairie conditions of the Mississippi Valley 
are peculiar to themselves in soil and climate. No place on the globe has an 
equal body of land abounding in such agricultural wealth. Tempered by no 
inland lakes, sheltered by no surrounding mountains, and protected by no 
native forests, our conditions are extremely severe. 

The first settlers brought with them the varieties of fruit they had grown 
in the East, and saw them “go out,” unable to stand the trying conditions. 
The country was scoured for hardier varieties, but with little success. Im- 
portations were made from other countries, notably Eastern Europe and West- 
ern Asia, and at one time it was thought that a panacea had been found for all 
troubles in this foreign stock. They were heralded as cold resisting, disease 
resisting and insect resisting, but experience has taught that the real value of 
a large majority of them will be as a means to the end in the hands of the 
plant breeder rather than in any inherent value they may possess themselves. 

The plant breeder has the opportunity now to gather up the broken threads 
of these dismal failures, and by bringing together the good qualities and elimi- 
nating the bad to produce the longed for fruits. 

To do this we must awaken an interest in plant breeding among horti- 
culturists; we must have their co-operation. The task that to one man may 
seem hopeless, to a thousand is but recreation. For one man to hand- 
pollinate one hundred blossoms each spring is not much of a task, but if 
1,000 men would do this we would have 100,000 blossoms bred each spring. 

The production of hardy varieties is the work for the masses, and not for 
the single experimenter. Success in plant breeding is best obtained by rais- 
ing large numbers of seedlings, and destroying with a free hand. Hand- 
pollination is too tedious work for one man to do a great deal of in the 
short time that he can work. The operation itself is not difficult, and can be 
done by any one with a little practice. 

In order to get horticulturists to co-operate in this work the Iowa Experi- 
ment Station has been sending pollen to any that would agree to do the work 
under their directions. Pollen is gathered in the southern part of the State, 
and is distributed from the Experiment Station. Certain crosses are recom- 
mended, and the pollen is supplied to make these crosses. In the fall the 


176 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 


seeds of the-hand-pollinated fruit can either be sent to the Experiment Station 
to be grown on their grounds, or kept and grown by the man raising them, 
and the latter method is preferred. It keeps the man’s interest alive in the 
work to have his own seedlings growing before him, and for him to watch 
for their first fruits. He not only watches them himself, but he shows them 
to his friends and awakens their interest, and thus it keeps spreading from 
one farm to another, and the interests of plant breeding are advanced. 

Horticulturists often hesitate to take up the work of hand-pollination 
because of the tediousness of the work. At best it is a slow and painstaking 
operation. It comes at a season when the horticulturist is crowded with 
work, and the short time that the blooming period lasts necessitates that all 
the work must be crowded into a very few days. Anything that will facilitate 
the details of the operation is of prime importance to the plant breeder. In 
order to determine some way of lessening the details of the work, the lowa 
Experiment Station last spring made comparative tests of different methods 
of pollinating the apple. 

HIGH VERSUS LOW EMASCULATION. 

In high emasculation the corolla and anthers were removed with tweezers, 
and the calyx was not disturbed. In low emasculation the calyx, corolla and 
stamens were removed by cutting through the blossom just at the base of the 
sepals, being careful not to injure the pistils. This necessitates very careful 
work and cutting entirely around the blossom. Low emasculation has the 
advantage that it can be done much more expeditiously than high emascula- 
tion, and if the results of pollination were satisfactory would be a decided 
advantage. But in fifty-nine blossoms emasculated low in five different varie- 
ties of apples only seven fruits set, or less than 2 per cent.; and in eighty- 
eight blossoms emasculated high twenty-three set fruit, or slightly over 26 per 
cent. The results were even more pronounced in the Wealthy apple. Fifty 
blossoms emasculated high and pollinated with Ben Davis pollen set eleven 
fruits, or 22 per cent. Twenty-five emasculated low set only one fruit, or 


4 per cent. 
POLLINATION AT TIME OF EMASCULATION. 


It is a commonly accepted idea that better results are obtained from 
pollination if delayed for two or three days after emasculation, or until after 
the stigmas come into a receptive condition, as shown by the viscid fluid that 
shows on their surface. To follow this method necessitates the covering of 
the blossoms when emasculated and then going over them again to pollinate 
them, and resacking. A test was made of the effect of pollinating as soon as 
emasculated, and of delaying it two or three days till the stigmas should come 
into a receptive condition. The results were very decidedly in favor of the 
immediate pollination. Out of 134 blossoms, consisting of Wealthy, Wal- 
bridge and Grant Crab, mostly Wealthy, pollinated as soon as emasculated, 95 
fruit set, or a fraction less than 71 per cent., while in 83 blossoms of the same 
varieties, pollinated three and four days later (the weather being cool), only 
13 fruit set, or a trifle over 15 per cent. 

The blossoms were emasculated in the ordinary method, removing only 
corolla and anthers. These results would seem to indicate that better results 
can be obtained if the pollen is placed on the stigmas as soon as the blossom 


HAND POLLINATION OF ORCHARD FRUITS. sbi 


is emasculated. When put on in this manner it awaits until the stigma comes 
into the receptive stage and then germinates and grows down and fecundates 
the ovules. On the other hand, if delayed till the stigma shows to the eye that 
it is in a receptive condition the style is likely to break down before the pollen 
reaches the ovules. Or, in short, it is much safer to put the pollen on the 
stigma too soon than too late. 

APPLYING POLLEN TO THE STIGMA. 

The question of how the pollen shall be applied to the stigma is one of 
the important details of the work. The use of a camel’s hair brush is usually 
recommended, while others say that as good results and more rapid work 
can be done by using the finger. In our experiments, out of 73 blossoms of 
Wealthy and Grant Crab apples pollinated with the operator’s finger, 12 fruit 
set, or 16% per cent., and out of 53 blossoms of the same varieties pollinated 
with a camel’s hair brush, 14 fruit set, or 26% per cent. If the supply of 
pollen is abundant, it can probably be supplied as satisfactorily with the finger 
as with the brush, but where the supply is limited and must be used sparingly 
it is likely that more satisfactory results can be obtained by the use of a brush. 

The most pronounced results obtained were those that favor pollination at 
the time of emasculation. Also, in collecting pollen, it was found that much 
better pollen was secured from anthers taken from blossoms before the corolla 
had opened. In general I believe that more satisfactory results can be 
obtained from hand-pollination by doing the work earlier than is generally 
practised. 

Hand-pollination is the highest developed art of the plant breeder. By 
it he is enabled to control his conditions and establish pedigrees with as much 
certainty as the animal breeder. Inter-planting, natural crossing and various 
methods of securing cross-pollination may be practised, but they can never 
establish positive records that. will enable the scientist to establish the laws of 
plant breeding. The scientific plant breeder must continue to follow hand- 
pollination, and in orchard fruits in which the generations are so slow in 
teproducing themselves, it is doubly important. 


The conference then adjourned to the Museum of the New York Botanical Garden, 


The following paper was read by H. F. Roberts: 


METHODS OF CEREAL BREEDING IN KANSAS 
By H. F. Roberts, Botanist at the State College, Manhattan, Kansas. 


The botanical and chemical departments of the Kansas State Agricultural 
College, at Manhattan, Kansas, have in charge, conjointly, the work in plant 
breeding at the Kansas Experiment Station. Hitherto our efforts have been 
concentrated upon the improvement of wheat and corn. During the present 
season, however, the breeding experiments have been extended to cover rye, 
oats, barley, kafir corn, soy beans and cow peas. But since the investigations 
have thus far been confined exclusively to wheat and corn, it is to a discussion 
of our work with these cereals that this paper will chiefly confine itself. 

Whether the cereal wheat has arisen from a few or from many wild 
forms, it is certainly true that the wheat of to-day consists of a very great 
number of sub-varieties. A visit to almost any average wheat field reveals the 
presence of several such varieties, which, despite the various manifest differ- 
ences in the character and quality of their seed, in the quantity of yield, in 
the vegetative characters of the plants, etc., are allowed to grow undisturbed 
together, in the end are harvested together, and the heterogeneous mixture of 
seeds is used again as a basis for the next year’s sowing. Now and then 
one finds an occasional wheatgrower who endeavors by careful selection to 
breed his wheat up to a uniform type. Such instances, however, are not 
numerous, nor is it even the case that a large number of wheat raisers practice 
even the simplest form of seed selection. Indeed, I have found it to be the 
case in many instances, that farmers will systematically retain only the lightest 
and least serviceable seed for planting, under the impression that it will yield 
just as well as the larger, plumper and heavier seed which they dispose of in 
the market. 

Our experiments in the breeding of wheat began in the fall of 1898. Since 
that time we have originated in the neighborhood of 150 crossbred strains of 
winter wheat. Of these, 36 are now growing in our experimental plots at Man- 
hattan, the remainder having been gradually eliminated through a rigid process 
of selection, and through extinction in the face of trying climatic conditions. 
As the result of these crosses we have secured enough varying lines to enable 
us to begin the process of breeding by selection. 

That portion of the State of Kansas in which the experiment station is 
located lies in what is known as the red winter wheat region, and our 
problems in wheat breeding have largely been connected with the improvement 
of wheat locally grown and especially adapted to that district. The western 


180 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 


third of the State, however, lying in a region of greater elevation, with a 
smaller annual precipitation and more rapid evaporatign, presents conditions, 
during at least part of the year, which are frequently very unfavorable for the 
growing of wheat of the mesophytic type. Since it has been found, however, 
that the climatic conditions there are almost a counterpart of those in South- 
eastern Europe, and notably in Southern Russia, where the macaroni wheats 
are grown, a new possibility presents itself with regard to the breeding of 
xerophytic bread wheats for the elevated region of the great plains. Inasmuch 
as the macaroni wheats are not adapted to breadmaking, it will probably 
always be the tendency of the majority of our Western growers to raise bread 
wheat where they can and macaroni wheat where they must. We have, there- 
fore, proceeded to make a number of crosses between macaroni wheats and some 
of our hardier winter bread wheats. We are also endeavoring to increase 
the drought-resistant qualities of our local bread wheat by crossing with 
spelts and emmers. The recent acquisition by the State of Kansas from the 
Federal Government of 3,800 acres of land in the semi-arid portion of the 
State and its transfer to the Agricultural College gives us a favorable field of 
operation for the working out of this particular problem. 

Since, as I have stated, hard red winter wheat is the favorite milling sort 
with us, it is to those strains passing under the general name of “Turkey” 
that we have naturally turned for a basis, both for our work in cross breeding 
and in selection. For the red winter wheat district the Turkey wheat, passing 
under the name of red winter and obtained a few years ago from the Iowa Ex- 
periment Station, has proved in the course of several trying seasons to be in 
every way the hardiest and most drought-resistant sort. Our attention is now 
turned, therefore, toward the improvement of this wheat by a rigid process of 
selection and by cross breeding with other desirable varieties. In dealing with 
this variety and its crosses, the two most important questions with which we 
are concerned are, first, earliness, and, second, increased yield. We have been 
endeavoring to shorten its growing period by crossing with our earliest local 
variety, a soft, bald wheat, passing under the name of Zimmerman. 

Naturally, the most pressing problem is that of increasing the yield of 
wheat, which is certainly far below what the fertility of the soil in Kansas 
would seem to justify. As was stated, there exists at present among our 
farmers, for the most part, no recognition of the advantages to be derived in 
the way of increased crop production from the selection of large, heavy seed. 
Quite recently, however, the seed-grading machines are beginning to find their 
way into our agricultural communities, and it is to be hoped that the use of 
these machines, by means of which the continued and persistent selection from 
year to year of large heavy grains of wheat for seeding is rendered possible 
on a commercial scale, will eventually result in increasing the product per acre 
considerably above the present standard. But it is well known to the plant 
breeder that the process of seed selection must be far more unremitting and 
far more rigid in method than the average wheat planter has the knowledge or 
patience to make it. It is fundamentally necessary that a strain of plants in 
order to be constant in their characters be botanically pure, that is to say, all 
of the plants must have descended from a common ancestor. Only in this 
way can a mixture of mutation forms in the sense of De Vries be avoided. No 


CEREAL BREEDING IN KANSAS. 181 


process of selection in the case of wheat is scientifically accurate, therefore, or 
will yield permanent results which does not take account of the possible exist- 
ence of these mutation forms and set about to discover and isolate them in pure 
cultures, which can then be compared with respect to all the desired char- 
acters sought for in wheat and only the most desirable and advantageous 
forms be retained. 

‘Where selection is practiced at all by growers it usually consists simply 
in the choice of large well developed heads out of the mass of the ripened 
wheat plants. This method, of course, ignores the plant as an individual. It 
is necessary, therefore, after securing a pure strain, botanically speaking, to 
enter upon a very extensive process of selection of individual plants from 
among large numbers, grown in such a way as to enable each individual to 
attain to its maximum development. In this way what are known as the 
“tillering” qualities of the different individual plants, that is, their tendency to 
send up numbers of grain-bearing shoots from stolons, will be revealed. The 
collection at random of occasional large, well-developed heads ignores the pos- 
sibility that such heads may be borne on plants markedly inferior in tillering 
capacity. As a basis for selection, therefore, we have this year planted our 
choicest varieties in nursery plots, in which the plants stand four inches apart 
each way. All of the seed thus planted has been carefully selected by hand, 
all but the largest and heaviest seeds being rejected. 

An example of a search for an advantageous mutation form or sub-species, 
supposed to vary in the direction of increased flowering capacity, may be in- 
teresting. This year in the field of a supposed pure strain of Pedigree Early 
Genesee Giant (Kansas No. 147) close examination discovered seventy-two 
heads having a decided “club” tendency. It is a well-known fact that the 
extraordinary yields of wheat on the Pacific Coast are due in considerable 
measure to the fact that the wheats there grown are what are locally known 
as the “club” wheats, that is to say, wheats having the tendency to develop in 
the upper spikelets of the head five or more grains instead of the two or three 
usually found in our local winter wheats. This tendency results in a swollen 
or clubbed appearance of the head. The Pacific Coast club wheats, however, 
are not hardy varieties with us, and, therefore, are not available for intro- 
duction into our district. We must, therefore, look to the development of 
clubbed tendencies among our native winter wheats. In our two best hard and 
soft strains, Turkey and Zimmerman, this tendency does not appear at all. 
It does show itself in a number of our velvet chaff wheats and in the No. 147 
just mentioned. Eleven of the heads of this number which showed the clubbed 
tendency most strikingly were selected, and a permanent record of their appear- 
ance preserved in photographs. From each one of these heads the spikelets 
were then carefully removed, from the base to the apex, in the order of their 
attachment to the axis. In each spikelet the number of flowers and the num- 
ber of grains produced were tabulated, and are graphically indicated as illus- 
trated in the accompanying diagrams. From these it will be seen that there 
is a marked tendency in certain heads toward the development of five and 
six flowers on the spikelet. In head No. 4, for example, spikelets 4, 5, 6. 7, 8, 
9, 10, 11, 12 and 13—+ten in all out of a total number of twenty-three spikelets 
growing on the head—produced six flowers. In seven cases five out of the six 


182 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 


flowers were found to have developed seed, making a percentage of fertility 
of eighty-three and one-third per cent. in one-third of the spikelets of the 
head. Moreover, out of the total of sixty-five grains borne on this particular 
head, it appears that thirty-five, or more than fifty per cent., were borne on 
these seven spikelets. 

The attempt will be made to ascertain whether the use as parents for 
crossing, of plants coming from grains in the more prolific spikelets will be 
found to result in the production of offspring whose tendency will be to in- 
crease flower and seed production. It may be urged that the club tendency in 
this case was simply the result of great vegetative vigor and is not the evi- 
dence of a mutation form. On account of the severity of the season and the 
great lack of rainfall during the period when the heads were being formed on 
the shoots this seems unlikely. 

To ascertain, however, whether we are coming into possession of mutation 
forms having increased flower production as a distinguishing character we are 
proceeding in the following manner: The grains in each one of the eleven 
heads mentioned have been planted this fall in separate rows. In each row 
the grains from the individual spikelets are arranged in their order from the 
base to the apex of the spikelet, and the grains of each spikelet succeed each 
other in serial order in the row. Each grain that grows, therefore, will be 
definitely referable to its place on the diagram. Next spring all the heads 
from each plant that grows will be harvested separately, and it is hoped that 
a statistical analysis of the progeny of the grains from all the different spike- 
lets of these eleven heads will reveal at least something which may throw light 
on the facts we are seeking to discover. As a basis for selection of clubbed 
forms on a larger scale, in case this seems desirable, the remaining sixty-orte 
of the clubbed heads of No. 147 have been planted in nursery plots, in which 
each head is planted by itself, but without any attempt to arrange serially the 
grains of the different spikelets. 

As an example of the part which natural selection plays in the work of 
wheat breeding it may be mentioned that out of some three hundred plots of 
our native cross and pure bred wheats planted last fall ninety-nine were dis- 
carded in the spring on account of winter killing, while out of one hundred 
and eight imported wheats from Southeastern Europe furnished by the United 
States Department of Agriculture fifty-five were discarded for the same rea- 
son. Some of these turned out to be spring wheats and “durums,” whose sur- 
vival of the winter was not to be expected. 

Further experiments are being carried on in the experiment station to de- 
termine the relative value of large and small seeds in cereal growing. Experi- 
ments conducted at the United States Department of Agriculture and elsewhere 
indicate a marked difference in plants growing from large as compared with 
those growing from small seeds. Experiments are being conducted by us to 
demonstrate this fact in the case of the cereal grains and to use the informa- 
tion obtained as a basis for urging the general use of seed-grading machines 
among our farmers. 

As an economic cereal Indian corn ranks as an equal with wheat in Kan- 
sas in point of acreage. Thus far our experiments in corn breeding have been 
directed almost entirely toward the increasing of the nitrogen content. Since 


CEREAL BREEDING IN KANSAS. 183 


1898 five hundred and eighty-one cross-bred varieties of corn have been pro- 
duced at our station. Each one of these, beginning with the year 1899, has 
been analyzed by the chemical department to determine the protein content, 
and each year all those numbers showing a nitrogen content below two per 
cent. have been discarded. The results of the analyses for three years show 
seventy-nine varieties that exceed two per cent. in nitrogen, while twelve of 
these contain over two and four-tenths per cent. of nitrogen, which repre- 
sents over fifteen per cent. of protein content. Of course, it will be under- 
stood that all the numbers thus analyzed have been hand-pollinated each year 
and protected from the influence of foreign pollen. It remains for further 
analyses to demonstrate whether this increased nitrogen content is a char- 
acter which can be maintained under field conditions and over large areas. 

Our efforts are further being directed, beginning with the present year, 
toward the improvement of corn according to a series of commercial standards 
such as those which have been laid down by the Illinois Corn Breeding Asso- 
ciation and kindred organizations. 


W. Saunders: Can Professor Roberts give me information in regard to a matter I 
was seeking information on? I lately obtained some wheats from Oregon, one under the 
name of Club and the other under the name of Blue Stem, and these wheats are said in 
Oregon to produce a good crop, whether sown in the autumn or sown in the spring. They 
can practically either be treated as spring wheats or winter wheats. ‘hat is, 1t the winter 
grain does not come through in good condition, all the farmer has to do is to sow a little 
in the bare places some of the grain in the spring, and it will ripen with the seed sown 
the fall before. Is it true or not? 

H. F. Roberts: I don’t know anything about that. That sounds like a California 
story. 

W. J. Spillman: Mr. Chairman, I am from Oregon and Washington, and I can 
answer the question. I have grown wheat out there for ten years, and I want to say 
there are three varieties of spring wheat which are almost universally grown in that great 
region out there, two being Club wheats, the Blue Stem being a peculiar local variety of 
long-headed wheat not closely related to the Blue Stem of Minnesota, being another 
variety altogether. Those are all spring wheats; that is, if sown in the spring they wiil 
ripen and bear a crop. But they are universally sown in the fall of the year, because 
any wheat in that section, when it does not freeze out, will yield from twenty to fifty per 
cent. more if sown in the fall than in the spring; for that reason they sow them in the 
fall. But they have been searching for a better wheat out there, and I undertook the job 
of finding a winter wheat in that section. I first sent several hundred letters to farmers 
asking about suggestions as to what the experiment station should work for, and every 
man who answered the letter made the same suggestion; that was, ‘‘Give us a winter wheat 
that is adapted to this country. We sow the spring wheats in the fall, and they freeze 
out in the wintertime.’”? The winter before last they had to sow them all again in the 
spring. And we went to work and experimented with several hundred varieties of winter 
wheat and found that we were chasing a wild goose. We went to work and began 
breeding wheats and got immediately what we wanted, and discovered Mendel’s law in 
operation. 

The Chair: I think it would be highly gratifying to Mendel if he could hear how 
his law is being demonstrated from both lines of approach, working forward and back- 
ward. We have an illustration of it here. 


em, 


Jhbins ae) 


Ae wi F al rvry re 


Ae ei gle wry os: 


“ J 
3 4 7 


re 


th - 
by lis 
: a 
« 
a 
: 4 
7 
z= 
ay 4s - = 
A + 
ee | 
+ eee 
—} pA hee 
= aa 7 z . 
im =f) 


The following paper was read by W. Fawcett: 


NOTES ON PLANT BREEDING IN JAMAICA 


By William Fawcett, Director of Gardens and Plantations, Jamaica, B. W. I. 


PINE APPLE. 


The smooth Cayenne pine is the favorite in the markets, because it is 
an excellent fruit with a fine appearance. 

There is no doubt, however, that the Ripley has a much better flavor, 
and many people in Jamaica will not eat any other variety. 

We have begun, therefore, experimenting in crossing these two vari- 
eties, with the aim of getting a fruit with the flavor of the Ripley and the 
showy qualities of the Cayenne. 

Prof. Herbert J. Webber, at the Conference at Chiswick in 1899, 
expressed the opinion that the flowers were self-sterile, and this opinion is 
confirmed by all the facts known. 

In hot-houses no seed is produced, unless cross-fertilization is effected; 
but in the open fields in Jamaica, where hummirg birds can be seen prob- 
ing the flowers, seed is frequently found and sometimes in great abundance. 

The fact that the flowers are self-sterile simplifies the operation of 
cross-fertilization, as there is no need of emasculation. 

We have now 51 plants grown from seed produced last year. Forty- 
three of these were from the Ripley, green and red mixed, fertilized with 
pollen from the smooth Cayenne. 

Of these 43 plants, 33 have spiny leaves and 10 have smooth leaves. 
Some of the spiny plants have nevertheless green leaves much like the 
Cayenne, and some of the smooth-leaved plants have bright red leaves like 
the Red Ripley. All the intermediate variations exist, no two being alike. 

Eight plants were the result of crossing the Porto Rico pine with the 
pollen of the Ripley. Two are like Porto Rico, 3 like Red Ripley, | like 
Green Ripley, and there are 2 smooth-leaved plants. 

We have also about 2,000 seedlings from this year’s plants, but they 
are still too young to show characteristic leaves. 


BANANA. 


If the flowering stalk is examined in the embryo condition in the stem, 
it will be found that the flowers are arranged in clusters disposed spirally 
round the axis. The clusters at the base of the stalk become the “hands” 
of the fruiting bunch. It will also be found that the flowers in different 
regions of the stalk vary in the proportion of the length of the ovary to 
that of the rest of the flower. In those clusters which eventually become 


186 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 


“hands,” the ovary is two-thirds the length of the whole flower; higher 
up on the stalk are clusters in which the ovary is about one-half the length 
of the flower; and still higher there is another series in which the ovary 
is about one-third of the flower. These three sets of flowers, clearly dis- 
tinguishable by the different proportionate length of the ovary, are physi- 
ologically very different; those with the long ovary are female flowers and 
become the fruit; those with the short ovary are male flowers, and those 
with the ovary about half the length of the flower are hermaphrodite and 
form short, useless fingers in the bunch. 

The pollen in both the hermaphrodite and male flowers appears to be 
perfect. 

We have tried to cross the red banana with the common Jamaican by 
applying pollen from male flowers of the red to the stigmas of the 
Jamaican. 

Several seeds were obtained but they failed to germinate. They were 
about 6 millimeters long, and it is possible they were not perfect. 


MANGO. 


The Mango was introduced into Jamaica about 120 years ago. 

The seed germinated so readily, even when thrown away along the 
road-sides, that it is now one of the commonest trees in Jamaica. 

The fruit of most of these trees is stringy with a strong turpentine 
taste. It would be an advantage if they could be budded from trees 
bearing fruit of good quality. 

It would also be advantageous if seedlings could be budded, as citrus 
plants are done. At present we propagate by grafting by approach. 

Experiments so far in budding have not been very successful, only two 
buds having taken on young branches of trees. The sap seems to be so 
gummy that actual contact of scion and host is very difficult. 


AVOCADO PEAR (PERSEA GRATISSIMA). 

The fruit known as Avocado Pear is extensively used in the West 
Indies, eaten with pepper and salt with fish and meat. The best varieties 
have an excellent nutty flavor, but very many are insipid. 

We have budded several plants at Hope Gardens, and demonstrated 
the practicability of improving the fruit generally in this way. 


FINAL SESSION AND RESOLUTIONS 


FINAL SESSION 


(Held in the Museum Building of the New Botanical Garden.) 


A session of the conference on October 2 was held in the museum of the 
New York Botanical Garden, by invitation of the board of managers. The 
members of the conference were entertained to lunch. President Wood 
called the conference to order at 2 p. m. 

Tue Cuarr: I desire to take this opportunity to express, on behalf of 
the Horticultural Society of New York and on behalf of this conference, the 
appreciation we have of the attendance at this conference of those gentlemen 
who have come to it from abroad, those who have come from across the 
water, the other side of the Atlantic, and those who have come to us from the 
West Indies, and also our brethren irom Canada. We do not speak of the 
Canadians exactly as foreigners; while we recognize their attachment to their 
country and their intense loyalty to their sovereign, we always look upon 
them as Americans and as brothers with whom we grasp hands most lovingly. 
But the attendance of these gentlemen from across the Atlantic and from the 
West Indies has emphasized the fact that there are no national lines in 
science, that we are working together for the same object, and there are 
none in the world more truly brethren than those who are united in the 
bonds of scientific investigation. These gentlemen, coming to us as they have, 
have added very greatly to both the pleasure and the importance of this 
conference. They have given us very valuable contributions, and I am sure 
we all feel that there could not possibly have been a more admirable opening 
of the sessions of the conference than that which Professor Bateson gave 
in his admirable address on Tuesday morning. I simply wish in this informal 
way to express our appreciation of the attendance of these gentlemen, and de- 
sire on behalf of all of us to give them our thanks for not only their attend- 
ance, but their very valuable contributions to the work of the conference. 

W. Bateson: I should like on behalf of those who have had _ the 
honor of taking part in this conference at the invitation of the Horticultural 
Society of New York to express in some imperfect way our thanks and our 
appreciation of the trouble they have taken in getting us together. I came 
with high hopes of what I was going to hear, of the enjoyment that I knew 
this conference must be to me, but I must say this very far surpasses the 
very high hopes that I had formed. To have been in contact for these few 
days with the number of persons we have met here who are so keenly inter- 
ested in this business of plant breeding and the detection of the fundamental 
truths in the life of plants, has been more stimulating and inciting to my mind 
than I can describe. I knew that very great work was going on in America, 
but what is going on is far greater than I had any knowledge of. I have met 
some of the gentlemen from Washington, and I hope in the course of the 
next week to see something of the work that they are doing there; but I can 


190 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 


see that though in England we had some idea of the work that was going 
on, we had no idea of its comprehensiveness and magnitude. We try to feel 
proud of our country, and we always succeed more or less. 

While we appreciate what others are doing, we must not too greatly 
belittle what is going on in the Old World. And it is with great pleasure 
that I say that I believe the first conference of this kind, though on a much 
smaller scale and in many ways less important than this conference, did take 
place in London, and I believe the germs which have grown and developed 
into such an important undertaking were laid possibly at that meeting of the 
Royal Horticultural Society in London. 

The rapidity with which these processes of fertilization go is most won- 
derful. We have hammered rather hard at the progress that has come about 
in science and horticulture through discoveries. I don’t know that we have 
heard too much of that, but we have heard a good deal. A gentleman said 
yesterday that the Mendelian law was not a law, that it was not true; but it 
has this merit, that it is the only law that we have as yet on this subject, and, 
like a great many other things, it is growing very fast, and I believe it will 
do much more for us in the future. Yesterday was so full, owing to the 
national genius of the country, that a gentleman said it was worth a thousand 
dollars. I would not put it at such a high figure, but it is worth a great deal. 

If you fancy yourself in a new country, especially in a new city, trying 
to find your way about; there are some cities the names of whose streets are 
put up; in other cities they are not put up, or not very conspicuously put up. 
In such a city as that, think of the traveler trying to find his way; he hunts 
about for the names of the streets and never finds them; but when it dawns 
upon him that the streets are arranged in any particular order, that there is 
not a confusion, that through three-fourths of that city at least the streets are 
all in arithmetical order, all rectangular and all arranged so that he knows 
where to look for a certain number, there is an illumination,—that is what 
Mendel’s law does always for the student. When it first dawns upon him 
that there is regularity, and the further he goes the more he will find this, 
the feeling in his mind is not less acute than is that of the traveler who dis- 
covers that there is order in the streets of New York. 

There remain, of course, in our country, just as in New York there re- 
main, those extraordinary complex streets, the growth of time, matted to- 
gether, tangled up, that we cannot see our way through; but, having found 
our way through a great piece of it, we are confident that in time we can 
find our way through the whole region. I should like to express in the 
warmest way our thanks to the officers of the society, to you, sir, and to Mr. 
Barron, and to Dr. Britton, for their kindness in bringing us together and 
giving us the opportunity of mind meeting mind, as we have done in the last 
few days, and I am quite sure that if such meetings are continued, as I feel 
confident they will be, in the future, that we shall see very great results come 
from them. 

D. Morris: I have very great pleasure to second the remarks made by 
Mr. Bateson as representing one section of the visitors to this conference. 
It has been to me the greatest possible pleasure to come here and to take 
part in the conference, When it was first suggested that I come, I was afraid 


FINAL SESSION. 191 


that the distance was too great and that the subjects that would be brought 
forward to the conference were such as would not be of great assistance 
to workers in the West Indies. 

But since we have been here, Mr. Fawcett and myself have been thor- 
oughly delighted with the business that has come before the conference, the 
thorough earnestness with which the subjects have been dealt with, and 
with the large amount of valuable information that we have received. 

The information itself has been most valuable, but also we have had sug- 
gestions given to us with regard to our future work that I believe will be 
of the greatest possible benefit to the West Indies. To you, sir. and to mem- 
bers of the council, and to the officers of the Horticultural Society of New 
York, I have the very greatest pleasure in seconding the sentiments proposed 
by Mr. Bateson. 

W. SAuNveERS: I heartily concur with what has been said by the two 
previous speakers as to the importance of this great international gathering 
of those interested in plant breeding, and as to the great pleasure which it has 
afforded us all to be here. And, also, may I join them in the expectation 
that great good will come of the deliberations which*we have been fortunate 
enough to be here to take part in as representing the country to the north of 
you? It is not a small country, either; a country we are rather proud of; as 
to its size we have a good deal to be proud of, and we hope some day to get 
it filled. 

In that country there are a great many problems relating to horticulture 
and agriculture, problems which can only be overcome in the long run by the 
plant breeder, and this international gathering, which we have had the pleasure 
of taking part in, is one which I consider of very great and particular value 
to us who live in the North. There are many districts of our great country, 
which is destined to be the home of many millions of people, where the 
products which we now have and which we can grow so successfully in the 
central parts of the continent cannot be cultivated at all; they do not grow. 
they will not stand the various changes that occur in the climate and the 
extremes they have to meet. 

Now, these difficulties can only be overcome by plant breeding. Find 
some plant which will succeed there,—however low it may be down in the 
scale——and then, by working in these different elements of which Mr. 
Munson and a number of other speakers have told us, we hope to be able 
to build up character in these products. We are trying to do that, and thus 
in time prepare for cultivation in these districts, which naturally seem so 
unfitted for the work, such products as will be useful and profitable to our 
people. I cannot very well express the pleasure and gratification I have had— 
it has been so great—in attending this meeting, and I am sure I only voice 
the sentiments of my confreres, who are here from different parts of Canada, 
that we all feel we owe a debt of gratitude to the officers of the Horticultural 
Society of New York for inviting us to be here, and we are all delighted that 
we came. 

H. H. Grorr: Speaking from the ranks of the unscientific workers, I 
would like to record my great pleasure at the honor and privilege that I 
have felt it to be to be with you during this conference. TI shall always look 


192 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 


back to it as one of the brightest experiences of my life, if I never have the 
pleasure of repeating it, as I hope on some future occasion to do. And I 
would like to say further that I think that it is very fitting indeed that the 
initiative has been taken by that nation of which it has been said it holds the 
highest hopes of humanity. 

G. NicHotson: May I trespass upon your time just for a moment? I 
should like to express my gratification and the pleasure I have taken here 
to-day. The establishment of which this forms the center is an establish- 
ment worthy of a great city and a great country. Such an establishment 
as that did not exist when I was in America before, and I am surprised at 
the developments of a few years, in the developments of which any nation 
might well be proud. I was here in the States about nine years ago, and 
the number of people and the hustle of every one impressed me very much 
then. I believe it is still more pronounced now. An old friend of mine once 
paradoxically said that horticulture must be intimately related through the 
blood of plants and through botany, purifying and improving it, with good- 
ness, and a man could not help being better. Judging from my experience, 
the importance of the horticultural society cannot be overestimated. I shall 
always remember this conference with the greatest of pleasure. 

W. M. Hays: I wish to say a few words representing in a way one class 
of the people at least who are working along this line of the improvement 
of our. plants and our animals in a somewhat organized way, in our great 
system of agricultural colleges and experiment stations, including that great- 
est one at Washington. I am only one of two or three who were in the con- 
ference three years ago in London. There has been great progress since that 
time, and the substance and subject matter of this meeting is a substantial 
evidence, a most remarkable evidence, of the progress that is being made in a 
number of ways, and especially of progress in the interest taken in this sub- 
ject, both from the practical standpoint and from the theoretical. 

We have come to believe that the theory of plant and animal improvement 
along scientific lines can be worked out, not only for the past, nature’s way 
of working it out, but for the future; and the people have come to believe as 
never before that this great question can be approached in a large way and 
much done for the good of humanity. Some of us after the meeting at Lon- 
don thought of organizing along these lines more carefully, and a great deal 
of that organization has already taken place. The Department of Agriculture 
at Washington has in hand, and already established, certain features of organi- 
zation bringing about co-operation between the experiment stations and also 
the government with groups of individual experimenters. 

Secretary Wilson has a thorough appreciation of this whole matter, and 
has done a great work in getting it in form where it is going to bring about 
great financial results for this country. No doubt there will be meetings of 
this kind of an international character again. When we were at the banquet 
in the Horticultural Club in London, a meeting similar to this, I] remember, 
it was suggested that we might some time meet in Paris, and Mr. H. de Vil- 
morin, who is since dead, was in hopes that he might be instrumental in bring- 
ing about such a meeting. We were so delightfully entertained in London that 


FINAL SESSION AND RESOLUTIONS. 193 


some of us, at least, will be anxious to go to the other side of the water again 
some time. 


THe CuHarir: We have all of us had varied experiences, possibly, in the 
entertainment of guests, and varied experiences in beitig guests ourselves, and 
we know that the relation is never perfectly satisfactory unless there is evi- 
dently mutual enjoyment, when both host and guest thoroughly enjoy the 
association one with the other. It did not require the words that have been 
spoken on this occasion for us to know that this condition of things existed. 
Still, it is very fitting that the expression should have been made, and we 
of the Horticultural Society of New York accept with very great appreciation 
the expression that has been given by our guests who have been present with 


us for these days. 
RESOLUTIONS 


W. B. Alwood presented and moved the adoption of resolutions express- 
ing the thanks of the conference to the Horticultural Society of New York 
and to its officers and to the managers of the New York Botanical Garden. 
he motion was seconded by C. L. Watrous, and carried. 

C. L. Watrous, as chairman of the committee appointed to consider the 
matter of co-operation between practical plant breeders and the United States 
Department of Agriculture, presented and moved the adoption of the follow- 
ing resolutions: 

Whereas, This conference recognizes the invaluable services which the United States 


Department of Agriculture is rendering to the breeders of plants and animals by collect- 
ing and publishing the results obtained by workers in these fields throughout the civilized 


_ world; and 


en de Te Led 
’ 


Whereas, We believe that plans for a still closer co-operation can be arranged to the 
mutual advantage of the department and individuals, associations and institutions inter- 
ested in plant and animal improvement; therefore, be it 

Resolved, That a committee of three be appointed by the Chair empowered and 
directed to confer with the Honorable Secretary of Agriculture with a view to the forma- 
tion of plans for the more intimate co-operation in future between individual workers 
and the department in question and publishing data relative to plant and animal im- 
provement. 

The motion was seconded and carried. 

The Chair appointed as members of the committee provided for in the resolutions 


the following: C. L. Watrous, W. M. Hays and L. H. Bailey. 


After an announcement by Dr. N. L. Britton regarding the inspection of the grounds 
of the Botanical Garden by the visitors, the conference adjourned. 


APPENDIX 


PAPERS: PRESENTED 


TO THE CONFERENCE AND 


READ BY?) TITLE 


NOTES ON THE BREEDING OF BEANS AND PEAS 


By W. T. Macoun, Horticulturist, Central Experimental Farm, Ottawa, Canada 


The following notes of an experiment to determine whether the time 
of maturing of beans could be lessened by selection may be at least sug- 
gestive. The experiment proves that even in the first year there was a 
marked difference. Reference is also made in these notes to a pea cross 
and the selection which followed where the results proved how readily once 
a cross had been made, the size of the pea could be altered by selection. 


BEANS 


In the year 1899 the earliest ripe pods from the earliest ripe plant of 
the variety of bean known as Challenge Black Wax were selected. The 
beans from this pod, six in number, were planted in 1900. There was a 
difference of three days between the time of ripening of the earliest and 
latest plant of these six. The earliest pod was taken from the earliest 
plant, and the beans from this, five in number, were planted in 1901. There 
was two days’ difference between the earliest and latest plants. All the 
pods from the earliest plant were saved and twenty beans sown in 1902. 
This year there was six days’ difference between the earliest and latest 
plant. Only seven plants out of the twenty had beans ready for table use 
at the earliest date; one, two days after; nine, three days after, and three, 
six days after. 

In 1901 after selecting the earliest ripe pod from the earliest of the five 
plants growing, the rest of the beans were saved and sown in 1902, when 
the beans were three days earlier than seed freshly imported from Phila- 
delphia. In 1902 seed from these was saved and sown alongside freshly 
imported seed from Philadelphia. The crop from our seed, though the 
beans had gone one year without selection, was seven days earlier. On 
different soil there was a difference of six days. How much of this 
difference is due to climate and how much to selection has not yet been 
determined, but that much of it is due to selection is indicated by the fact 
that among the selected plants themselves there was a difference of six 
days between the earliest and latest. 


PEAS 


Many crosses have been made at the Dominion Experimental Farms 
between different varieties of peas. In the year 1892 . cross was made by 
Dr. A. P. Saunders with Black Eyed Marrowtat as the female and Mummy 
as the male parent, the former being a large, black-eyed pea and the latter 
a medium sized, white one. The peas from the crop of that year had 
black eyes and resembled the Marrowfat very much. These were sown in 


198 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 


1893 and the yield from each kept separate. In 1894 the crop from each 
was sown again, and each was harvested separately as before. That year 
both the vines and peas showed marked variations. There were vines with 
the flowers in clusters at the top like the Mummy, and other vines with 
the flowers scattered. There were large peas with black eyes, and small 
peas- with black eyes, small, medium and large pure white peas, and peas 
with a yellow or dusky tint like the Black Eyed Marrowfat, but without 
the black eye. A single plant having flowers in clusters at the top, but 
having peas with black eyes, was selected and the crop saved, ~ The 
largest peas and the smallest ones, which were smaller than any known 
named variety, were selected from this crop and sown separately in 1895. 
The difference in size of the peas produced from these was very marked. 
Most of the peas from the small seed were quite as small as the peas sown, 
and on the other hand the peas from the large seed were as large and 
larger, and in 1896 the results were the same. Selection has not been car- 
ried on regularly with these since, as sufficient evidence was obtained of 
what could be done in selecting for size in peas once new blood has been 
introduced by cross-breeding. As far as the writer is aware, experiments 
have shown that it requires a long time to make any marked difference in 
the size of an established variety of pea by ordinary selection. 
Experiments have been in progress at the Central Experimental Farm 
for the past three seasons in the selection of named varieties of peas with 
a view to increasing the number of peas per pod, and productiveness of the 
plant, and to lessen the number of days in maturing. No marked results — 
have yet been obtained. 


IMPROVEMENT OF CORN BY BREEDING 


By C. P. Hartley, U. S. Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. 


Perhaps in no other way can plant breeders be of so much benefit to the 
country as by creating reliable sources from which farmers can procure pure 
and superior seed corn of varieties adapted to the soil and climatic conditions 
of various sections. Because of the difficulty of preventing admixtures and also 
because so small a quantity of seed is required per acre, growers on small farms 
will probably always find it to their advantage to annually buy their seed 
corn, if they have reliable sources from which to obtain pedigree seed of sorts 
adapted to their respective localities. In a few sections of the United States 
strains of corn have been originated and acclimated, and from these small quan- 
tities of seed adapted to those sections can now be obtained; but the greater 
part of the corn-producing area of this country is without sources from which 
to obtain seed corn of good quality. Without other additional expense or work, 
the substitution of good pure seed corn for that now planted: throughout the 
country would increase our corn production by millions of bushels. 

The time has not yet come when general advice can be given to growers 
regarding the purchase of their seed corn because the sources of supply are 
not yet numerous enough, nor is the quality of seed that can be purchased as 
good as it should be. Furthermore, there are too many unscrupulous dealers 
who, by misrepresentation and exaggerated statements, are ever ready to sell 
at high prices corn that has been bought at market price and that possesses 
none of the requirements of good seed corn. 

It is, however, in order to advise all those who are capably situated to 
begin at once, and by careful breeding, to fix a pure type of corn, suited to 
the soil and climatic conditions of their sections. This would by no means 
include all corn growers, for the farms of many are so small that they can- 
not give a corn the necessary isolation, and if their farms be of average size, 
proper crop rotation will bring their cornfields too close to those of a neigh- 
bor who grows poor corn. There are but few in each State who have ideal 
conditions under which to breed a pure corn, and it therefore behooves plant 
breeders to produce stock seed of pure strains from which the growers in any 
corn section of the country can buy first class seed adapted to their farms. 

The corn crop of the United States represents more money value than 
that of any two other crops, and this is the leading corn country of the 
world; yet no intelligent grower is willing to say that no improvements in 
corn are needed. Let us consider (1) what improvements are needed; (2) 
whether their attainment is possible, and (3) the best means of accomplish- 
ing them. 


200 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 


In respect to yield.there is much room for improvement. The average 
yield per acre in the United States is scarcely one-fourth what it might and 
should be, and, strange as it may seem, it is not greatest in the sections 
where corn naturally thrives the best. For instance, an average of the pro- 
duction in each of the New England States for the past ten years is 36.49 
bushels per acre, while the average production in Illinois during the same 
dime is 31.55 bushels, and in Iowa, 30.93 bushels per acre. This must be due 
to the fact that in the New England States much more care is given to the 
few acres that are planted, than to the large cornfields of the States of 
Illinois and Iowa, for one can scarcely believe that with the same care in all 
respects as much corn can be grown on an acre in Vermont as on an acre in 
Illinois. Grouping some of the States according to their geographical situa- 
tion and averaging their corn production without considering the acreage 
of the various States, we find the average number of bushels per acre for 
the ten years from 1892 to 1901 to be as follows: New England States, 
36.49; New. York, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, South Dakota and 
North Dakota, 27.6; New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, 
West Virginia and Virginia, 26.97; Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, 
Kansas, Missouri and Kentucky, 27.38; South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, 
Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas, 13.59. It will be noticed that the group 
containing Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri and 
Kentucky, the most extensive corn producing States of the Union, give an 
average of but 27.38 bushels per acre, while the average of the New England 
States is 9 bushels greater. The general average for the entire United 
States for the ten years from 1892 to Igor, inclusive, is but 23.51 bushels per 
acre. While this low average is to some extent due to lack of attention in 
various respects, such as cultivation, etc., it is also in a very large measure 
due to the poor quality of seed corn that is planted throughout the country. 

Much credit is due to individual growers in certain sections or counties 
of various States for instituting methods of seed selection and culture which 
have proved so satisfactory that they have been adopted by many of their 
neighbors. This accounts in a great degree for the usual good crops in some 
counties, while other counties, equally as fertile, produce much lower aver- 
ages. In some sections, noted for their large acreages and many bushels, the 
corn is of very poor appearance and quality because the effort is to grow as 
many acres as possible rather than to grow the best corn and much of it to 
the acre. At one of the great corn shipping centers of the United States, a 
heavy corn buyer made this remark: “Our corn looks a great deal better 
after it is shelled than it does in the ear.” 

The secret of improving yields lies in causing every stalk to produce 
abundantly, and this is accomplished by planting seed from stalks that pro- _ 
duce well, and which also have the power of transmitting their productive- 
ness to their offspring. Valuable strains of this kind can be obtained only by 
persistent effort. Exact records greatly facilitate this work. 

In working to increase production, much attention must be given to the 
quality of the crop produced. Eighty bushels per acre of ear corn that yields 
80 per cent of shelled corn is not as desirable as seventy-five bushels per acre 
of a corn that furnishes 90 per cent.; nor is seventy bushels of shelled corn 


201 


IMPROVEMENT OF CORN. 


Fig. 1.—Shows leafy stalks noticed in a field of white dent corn. 


HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK, 


9 
“ 


‘sseq Joded UL pasojoue sjesse} puke S}OOYs Y}IM [ “Sly Ul UMoOYsS sjuRld uI0Q—"Z 


‘BI 


IMPROVEMENT OF CORN. 203 


per acre of a corn low in oil and protein as desirable as sixty bushels of a 
corn high in oil and protein. 

While great productiveness of shelled corn, rich in feeding value, is the 
leading qualification for a corn to possess, it is folly to suppose that any one 
strain possessing this qualification to a superior degree? would displace all 
other corns and thus eliminate all danger of injurious cross-breeding. We 
must, and will, always have various types of corn. We must have different 
corns for various geographic sections, and we must have different corns for 
various purposes, and in order that satisfactory returns may result from our 
labor, we must hold these various types to a high degree of perfection and 
prevent admixtures. We must have sweet corns early and late, rich in 
sugar, for the table; we must have popcorns rich in volatile oils, for the 
children; we must have corns with large flinty kernels for hominy and grits, 
rich golden corns for some markets, and pure white ones.for others; and we 
must have corns with rich, succulent stalks and foliage, for-the silo. 

Besides these essentials, there are other points that need the corn 
breeder’s attention. The cattle feeder demands a prolific: corn, but the ears 
must not be large and the kernels and cobs must be soft enough for the 
animals to masticate. In southern sections it is usual for.thé stalks to grow 
too tall, with the ears too high to be reached conveniently, while in the 
North, the corn breeder must encourage the production of ears higher on the 
stalks so that there will be room for the harvester to cut the stalks below 
the ears. The length and size of ear stalks need the attention of the breeder. 
The peduncle, or stalk that bears the ear, should be long enough and slender 
enough to be bent by the weight of the mature ear, so that the latter will 
assume a pendent position, and thus remain dry during rainy weather. A 
very long ear stalk is a waste of growth. The husks should protect the ears 
well from insects and water, and yet not be so tight as to prevent the develop- 
ment of the kernels nor interfere with the ease of husking. The form and 
appearance of the ear is already receiving much consideration by those who 
are giving attention to corn breeding. A cob of a given size should support 
as many kernels of uniform size and shape as possible. This is accom- 
plished on cylindrical ears with straight rows and well filled ends. 

All who have had experience in breeding plants will admit that the 
needed points of improvement that have been briefly pointed out are possible 
of accomplishment. A few specific examples will now be given to illustrate 
how readily corn responds to selection of seed for the purpose of modifying 
either stalk, ear, or kernel. 

In 1901, in a field of tall growing, white dent corn, a few short and 
very leafy stalks were noticed (Fig. 1). The figure 2 shows the same 
plants with shoots and tassels enclosed in paper bags. These stalks were 
but four or five feet tall, and bore fram eighteen to twenty broad leaves, 
while the other stalks of the same corn were Io feet tall, but bore fewer 
leaves. A few adjacent tall stalks were removed and the short ones cross- 
pollinated by hand one with another. The seed resulting from these short 
plants was planted in one row in 1902, in a field planted with seed from the 
normal tall stalks of the same corn. How very much the stalks in this one 
row resemble the parent stalks is shown by figure 3. The difference in the 


HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 


204 


‘uol}0aJ9S pases S§,JvaA BUQ “MOI Ja}U29 94} UI UMOYS SH[e}S UIOD JABMP pa}IIJaG—'g “By 


~ 
os 


VA ee iia 
PEI 


ay 


at 


ee 


IMPROVEMENT OF CORN. 205 


appearance of the stalks in this row from those seen in the adjacent rows is 
the result of one year’s seed selection with reference to the characters of the 
parent stalks. 

The need of giving attention to the ear in selecting seed corn may be 
seen in the following record of seven individual seed ears of a pure corn. 
The ears were planted separately on uniform soil and tended similarly in 
all respects. 


Average length Average weight Average pounds 
Length of ears of 30 good seed of all progeny of ear corn 
planted. ears harvested. ears. per stalk. 
8 inches. 8 1-2 inches. 565 pounds. .550 pounds.’ 
Bi Dare BE Aye 
cea QA=304> AO gE Pa Gon 2: 
9 “ 9 I-10 6 Gin ce 582 “ 
oh Ou=3'- er 508-5 
10. O12 = IcSaaee (ois) 
10 “ 9 =O “ 587 ‘c 688 «“ 


That the separate kernels of a seed ear have different transmitting ten- 
dencies is illustrated by the following. In the spring of loot a very unusual 


Fig. 4.—Ear of red corn with a white portion found in a field of white 
dent. (One-half natural size.) 


ear of corn was obtained. It was a red ear with a white spot covering about 
one-fifth of its surface (Fig. 4). The ear was discovered in a field of white 
dent corn. This strain has been grown for many years as a reasonably pure 


HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 


206 


at 8 


prety 


AAV 


99010 


hie antates HARRIE SNUG OPS HT ALOLOCSS 


vivet i 14 
DIV EEREMVA KENNEY } 


vacdaaeoct 
Goleta 


009000 


4 


f e 
Yah mn Natale! al a 


W th 


. 


i 


0G 


f 


‘ 


} 


prerna 


ehh 


yy 


£%6 


Jp 


“9 


fat? 


Aus 


Pe ait 


ptitd 


alan 


N00 Ny 4 y | 


00 0 DADE 


iid 


t 


f 


4 


(One-half natural size.) 


Tig. 5.—Grown from the red kernels seen in Fig. 4. 


207 


IMPROVEMENT OF CORN. 


4 


ab PE ESS 
A Age f 


ide 
24446000 


2 o\e 
» a9 


A pieG' 
a3 BABAR Arts 


* 
Lj 


e fs 
204 tit 


501096 
ty 


Jy 3} AAs 3 ie}? 
GiUEGUhGgE 


UeduDTOR0 


Pai 


af be YO 


44 


ARK rans i 


GARIN 


1) 


UnRnAn Ale a 


aM (eo fejely' ipo petadepermaye OU ie 
Af ‘| BUOOEa Dy 


> 44 uid buuuuY 
jodaveaaowsa® 
aO00000G020000 


OlCGOOLO00IG0RD Y. 


00090000969 q0° 


ooaaaon gangearsengnaggnnnngro Dan 9 


MACON 


O97a0NNAn. 


ANONSNGARHON ES | 
i THRE SRDAS ath pls Lp Wa ela av! 


(One-half natural size.) 


t, 


Fig. 6.—Grown from white kernels seen in Fig. 


208 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 


white dent, which occasionally produced a red ear, but was never before 
known to produce ears bearing spots. The red kernels of this ear were 
uniformly red with a small light spot at the cap of each kernel. The kernels 
composing the white spot, although appearing very white in contrast with 
the red ones, when examined closely proved to have very fine red lines or 
streaks, radiating from the caps down the sides of the kernels. These two 
types of kernels were planted separately. The red ones yielded a crop com- 
posed of eighty-four red ears and eighty pure white ears; while the white 
kernels with fine red stripes produced thirty-nine ears with kernels like those 
planted, and thirty-six pure white ears. In the illustration is shown the 
red ear with the spot at the base. The two ears labeled 70-1 represent the 
pure red ears and the pure white ears that were produced in about equal 
quantities by planting the red kernels of the spotted ear. The two ears 
labeled 70-1% represent the pure white ears and the ears bearing striped 
kernels like those from the white portion of the spotted ear. 

Tt should be borne in mind that these special cases cited are illustrations 
of the seiection of individual variations, and not variations purposely pro- 
duced by hybridization. They are given, not because they show progress in 
desirable lines of corn improvement, but because they illustrate how readily 
the corn plant yields to modifications of stalk, ear, or kernels, through seed 
selection, in accordance with individual variation. The conclusions that 
necessarily follow are these: If stalks with certain qualities are wanted, 
seed must be taken continuously from such stalks; if ears with certain 
qualities are wanted, seed must be taken continuously from such ears; if 
kernels with certain qualities are wanted, such kernels must be planted; and 
furthermore, if stalks with certain qualities, bearing ears with certain quali- 
ties, containing kernels with certain qualities, is what is wanted, attentio1: 
must be given to stalks, ears, and kernels when selecting seed. To fulfil these 
requirements seed ears cannot be selected from a corn crib, but must be se- 
lected from standing stalks. Every seed corn grower should have a seed 
patch and an increase patch. In the seed patch the very best ears should be 
planted, each row being planted with seed from a single ear. The crop from 
each row should be weighed so as to obtain the performance record of the 
seed ears. From the best rows a few of the choicest ears should be taken 
and used in planting the seed patch the next year, while the other good seed 


ears can be shelled together and planted in the increase patch, which should 
be of sufficient size to yield enough good seed for planting the general cron. 

The many needed improvements, the possibility and method of their 
accomplishment, have been briefly discussed without speaking of hybridiza- 
tion. The possibilities of corn improvement are so great and are so certain 
of accomplishment by isolation and rigid selection that little need be said 
concerning hybridization in this connection. For one with an abundance of 
time for keeping records, the corn plant offers one of the best fields for the 
study of the problems of heredity. While the plant breeder has learned 
much and will learn much more by corn hybridization, the corn grower has 
improved his corn much and will improve it much more by seed selection. 

Breeders make use of hybridization to cause increased variation of char- 
acters, but for the present this is not necessary in the case of corn. We 
now have many types each exhibiting variations to a high degree, so that for 
practical results the augmentation and fixation of desirable characters is far 
more important than is an increase in the number of characters. 


MY EXPERIENCE IN HYBRIDIZING CANNAS 


By Antoine Wintzer, West Grove, Pa. 


It is about nine years since the writer first commenced to experiment 
with cannas, with the object of improving the strain and creating some new 
and desirable varieties suitable for our trying climate. At that time we de- 
pended almost entirely on the skill of the European growers for our novelties 
in cannas, and they sent ws annually a great many new varieties. While 
some of these novelties were good, a great many were little, if any, im- 
provement, on existing varieties. 

Aiter growing a few seedlings from the best strains, the writer com- 
menced to cross breed with the intention of producing a good solid yellow 
canna. There were plenty of spotted yellows, but we desired something 
purer. In 1893, from a batch of Crozy and Star-of-1891 seedlings, I was 
fortunate in getting one almost yellow. It was named Golden Star. ‘The 
next year I succeeded in growing from another lot of seedlings another al- 
most pure yellow; it was named Coronet. 

By crossing these two varieties I succeeded in producing Buttercup. 
This variety seems to have the desirable qualities long looked for in a yellow 
canna. It is rather dwarf, an early and free bloomer, erect head held well 
above the foliage, endures the sun without bleaching, drops its faded flowers, 
which always gives it a bright and clean appearance. It will also bloom 
under a lower temperature than most varieties, and last, but not least, its 
tubers are small and solid, making it especially valuable for pot culture. 
Besides the yellow, I was also desirious to grow some good pink varieties. 

To enable me to get these I had a good start with Pink Ehmani, which 
I raised in 1894 from seed hybridized by Dr. Van Fleet. Having a start in 
color, I hybridized it with other varieties, and produced Maiden’s Blush, 
Rosemawr, Martha Washington, Betsy Ross. The main difficulty found in 
the varieties of this color was the poor keeping quality of the tubers. In 
the earlier varieties they were soft and spongy and liable to rot in a dor- 
mant condition, long before the weather was warm enough to plant them in 
spring. The last two named varieties are free from this bad habit. They 
usually produce small hard tubers of good keeping quality. 

After breeding cannas for a few years, I noticed that it was desirable 
to produce small and solid tubers. A great deal of this work is still in its 
infancy, but we are slowly advancing along that line. In the early ’9os 
there were several good red cannas in commerce, and any one at that time 
looking over the leading catalogs and reading the description of such va- 
rieties as Alphonse Bouvier, would wonder how a more brilliant color could 
be produced, and I often longed for the shade of red we had in such roses 


210 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 


as Prince Camille de Rohan and Baron de Bonstettin. In the production of 
Philadelphia and Pillar of Fire, I became hopeful, and more so when later, 
Duke of Marlborough, Black Prince and Cherokee came into existence 
through my efforts along that line. The Duke had the most interesting 
history, as being the production of a very inferior seedling, which had nothing 
to recommend it except its dark color. Its pollen used on Philadelphia pro- 
duced the Duke of Marlborough. In working for solid color, I managed so 
produce a great many shades and combinations of colors found in such va- 
rieties as Lorraine, Niagara, Conqueror, Schley, Duke of York, Striped 
Beauty and a host of others, most of which were thrown into the mixture 
after they were tested for a couple of seasons. Alsace, the nearest to a white 
canna, although small, was useful in massing, and is now extensively dis- 
seminated. It was produced in 1894. From its pollen I produced Montano, 
Starlight and quite a number of seedlings of little value, and only useful for 
breeding. At last I produced one which proved superior, and it was named 
Mt. Blane. It was almost pure white, with full-sized flowers produced on 
strong, vigorous, erect stalks, carried well above its rich, massive foliage. 
The habit of nlant is vigorous and of good constitution. 

In the Canna indica section we had very little variety in colors. After 
crossing these for several years, | produced Mt. Etna, Queen of Holland, 
Shenandoah, Evolution. These are giving us a wider range of colors. The 
last named is proving very hardy and vigorous. Its odd color, a blending of 
orange, salmon and yellow, making a fine contrast with its rich bronze 
foliage. To produce the different colors and types mentioned, it was neces- 
sary for me to do a considerable amount of hand hybridizing. This work was 
done at odd times when coiiditions were favorable, generally in early morn- 
ing. We usually plant from four hundred to five hundred of these seedlings 
in the field annually in June. The seed is started under glass in April, and 
germinates quickly. When they show two leaves they are potted into 2 
or 3-inch pots. The majority of them bloom in August. At that time I 
always look over them daily and aumber or mark the most promising ones. 

_In reviewing the work of the past I find that the mistake made is in num- 
bering too many. I find that it is well not to do much of this work on cloudy 
days, as under such conditions cannas of average quality show up well. For 
several years I have selected hot, dry days, from I to 5 o’clock p. m., with 
the thermometer anywhere from 90 degrees, up, in the shade. Under such con- 
ditions it is necessary for a canna flower to have substance to make a show. 

The work of selecting seedlings is becoming more difficult, as there are 
several expert canna hybridizers in Europe and in this country who are work- 
ing and developing fine novelties, and we are all striving for the ideal canna, 
with the hope of producing it in the near future. Any one looking back a 
decade will admit that the work of the canna hybridizer has developed the 
flower to a remarkable degree, and the canna of the present time is worthy 
of a place in the finest conservatory, and in the near future will be used as a 
decorative plant. The canna has not received the attention it justly deserves. 
Nearly all our public parks are planted with inferior varieties. If these 
were thrown into the dump pile, and their places filled with the improved 
varieties, the public would have a better opinion of the canna as a blooming 
plant. ; ' } 

In conclusion, the writer would say that the labor of the hybridizer is not 
so arduous as some would have us believe. Why should he care if the dew 
is wet, or the sun hot; is he not laboring for love? Is it worth nothing to 
watch a plant grow and thrive under your care and produce its beautiful 
flowers for your eye to behold? 


HYBRID PLUMS 


By F. A. Waugh, Dept. of Horticulture, Massachusetts Agricultural College, 
Amherst, Mass. 

A large number of hybrid plums has appeared on the scene in America 
during the last few years. They have aroused considerable interest, and 
many of them have been rather extensively planted. There is, therefore, a 
good deal of information extant regarding their behavior and a healthy 
demand for further information. Such matters as have come within the 
scope of my own observaticn and experiment have been presented in various 
articles—principally in the publications of the Vermont experiment station. 

In the papers referred to I have described a considerable number of 
varieties, old and new, and have given the historical data regarding their 
origin. In many cases the question of parentage and affiliation has been 
discussed. It has been shown, also, that various species participate much 
more frequently in garden hybridization than do others; and various sug- 
gestions have been made in connection with these observations for the further 
breeding of plums. 

One observation which has been repeatedly made, and which I wish to 
make the principal point of this discussion, relates to one of the fundamental 
laws of hybridity. It has usually been laid down as true that offspring of 
the first generation from two specific parents will greatly resemble one 
another. There is likely to be a wide range of variation in the second gen- 
eration, but the first crosses are said to be usually very uniform. In plants 
propagated by buds this uniformity will, of course, be preserved by grafting 
or similar means, and it becomes more interesting on that account. 

The general law quoted above seems to be verified among the hybrids 
already produced in the genus Prunus. While the uniformity is not always 
so striking as would justify the law aside from experience in other genera, 
still it is sufficiently obvious to be worthy of note. ‘The offspring from 
any given pair of specific parents seem to be quite as uniform as any of the 
other common groups among the plums. It is a well known fact, of course, 
among pomologists, and even among botanists, that all or nearly all our 
species of Prunus are very variable. Anything like a reasonable degree of 
uniformity, therefore, in a group of hybrid offspring should be accepted as 
worthy of remark. 

The three species which have been most frequently used in hybridization 
experiments in this country, and which have also bred most readily with each 
other in the field, are Prunus hortulana, P. triflora and P. simonii. The 
most common cross is the one between the two first named. These hybrids 
have appeared naturally and artificially literally by thousands; and a large 
number of them have been named, described, propagated and distributed. 


212 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 


The best known varieties of this group, which may serve to recall its char- 
acters to mind, are Alabama, America, Excelsior, Golden, Gonzales, Govalle, 
Juicy, Lannix, Louisiana, Minnie, Monolith, Nona, Preserver, Scribner, 
Watson, Waugh and Yates. 

These varieties are as. much alike as those in the hortulana group, for 
instance. A new variety of this parentage can be recognized quite as easily 
and as certainly as a pure Chickasaw, a pure Americana or a pure Domestica. 
For this reason it seemed to me just and proper to describe the group sepa- 
rately and to give it a name. 

This description appeared in the fourteenth annual report of the Ver- 
mont experiment station, p. 276. Horticulturally the group was called by 
the name of the variety Gonzales. Botanically it was named Prunus hortu- 
lana robusta. : 

The next most important group of hybrid plums seems to be that which 
counts for its parentage Prunus hortulana on the one side and P. simonii on 
the other. In this series Wickson is much the best known variety. Bartlett, 
Chalco, Climax, Maynard, President and a few others are supposed to have 
the same parentage, and so far as I have been able to study them in the 
orchard they show the same general characters. In the forthcoming report 
of the Vermont experiment station, therefore, I expect to present a name and 
description for this group. The present article may be considered a prelimi- 
nary notice of the final publication here referred to. 

The group just mentioned will be called horticulturally the Wickson 
group. The botanical name and description will also be added, the name 
proposed being Prunus triflora recta. 

The next most important group from the horticultural standpoint appears 
to me to be the one originating from the combination of Prunus triflora and 
P. americana. Unfortunately there is very little material which can be really 
presented to the public. Not a single variety, so far as I know, which illus- 
trates the typical characters of this group is now held for sale by any nursery- 
man. The variety Ames sent out a few years ago by the lowa Agricultural 
College is said to have this parentage. While the record of its pedigree is 
doubtless correct, the variety does not present the characters of Prunus tri- 
flora very obviously, but seems to be almost purely P. americana. The variety 
Omaha, described by the writer in Vermont experiment station report 14, p. 
272, 1s, however, typical, and a study of this variety, along with several others 
which I have seen, leads me also to give a group name and description to the 
varieties of this pedigree. The horticultural name proposed is the Omaha 
group, and the botanical name suggested is Prunus triflora rustica. This 
group is a very interesting one, and, in the opinion of the writer, has an 
important future before it on the pomological side. 

These matters are brought up here largely because they illustrate the 
writer’s views regarding the treatment of horticultural groups. Wherever 
such plants have important characters in common, which may be perpetuated 
indefinitely, it is desirable that they should be classed together. And where 
these characters take rank along with those which are commonly used to 
make specific distinctions in the same genus it is wise to treat these hybrid 
groups just as the natural groups in the same genus are treated. There is 


HYBRID PLUMS. 213 


some difference of opinion, I am aware, as to the wisdom of making botan- 
ical names for such cases as these, but the writer is one of those persons who 
believe that it is nothing against a variety or a species that we should know 
its origin. The fallacy of requiring a man to be ignorant about any par- 
ticular points regarding his material in order that he may call it a species has 
often been pointed out. 

Much interest has been aroused recently by the experimental work of 
De Vries. His work is somewhat in the same line as that which is here 
reviewed; and those who justify him in calling his groups species will doubt- 
less be content to speak of Prunus hortulana robusta, P. triflora rustica, ete. 
Those who stick to the strictly old-fashioned and conservative notion of 
species naming may justly take exception to the practice here illustrated. 


io, ; 
< 


= tS 


ad A ae 
‘ eae snmees hae 
a eae ea eH 
POSS. CTS: Seeks 

LS aps Ps: eres TIA eee 


THE MUSKMELON 


-F, William Rane, Dept. of Horticulture and Forestry, New Hampshire College, 
Durham, N. H. 


Of the various plants grown-in the garden few have been appreciated 
more than the muskmelon. The muskmelon is not only a delightful and 
highly valued fruit when well grown, but under favorable conditions is 
easily raised and brings good financial returns to the grower. 

The writer has grown muskmelons for many years, and is impressed 
with their constantly increasing popularity and the extended area devoted to 
their culture. Much of the fruit found in the markets, however, is even yet 
of little value as regards quality, and were it possible to educate growers to 
grow only the better varieties, those more delicately flavored, our present area 
would be very inadequate. Poor, flavorless varieties are just as hard to grow, 
other things being considered, as good ones. Sunshine, however, is believed 
to be quite importantly associated with flavor. 

When sending in this subject to the Conference the purpose was to 
make an exhausted study of the development of the cultivated American 
muskmelons and in so far as possible trace out the origin and_ history 
of all of our standard, well known and promising sorts. While the varie- 
ties themselves have been carefully studied and an attempt at classifica- 
tion made, it was thought by a close investigation into the origin of each 
variety perhaps sufficient data might be obtainable to indicate more or less 
the phyla or line of development. 

Early in the year I wrote to all of our leading seedsmen throughout 
the country personal letters asking them for all possible information in regard 
to their various introductions of muskmelons, viz., date of introduction, de- 
scription and photograph of the original fruit, where originated, by whom, 
whether a known cross, and if so its parentage, etc. I also wrote many large 
growers throughout the country for similar assistance in tracing the origin 
and history of this fruit. Some of our leading agricultural and horticultural 
papers assisted me likewise by publishing a notice free of charge asking for 
similar assistance. Each of the Agricultural College and Experiment Station 
horticulturists was likewise consulted and asked to co-operate in the work. 

From these various sources a very liberal response was received. Many 
seed firms were frank to say that they had not introduced anything of their 
own origin, and even most of those offered to the public were not of any 
definite known crossing, but largely variations or strains which through 
selection had been brought out. Some were supposed to be crosses from the 
fact that other varieties which the chance seedling or strain seemed to 
resemble had been growing near by. Seedsmen, growers and horticulturists 
united in not only giving me the advantage of their own experience and data, 


216 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 


but in giving addresses of many persons whom they believed might assist me. 
These addresses were again written, referring me in turn to still others. 

It has been interesting in accumulating this data to get the ideas of 
growers as regards the development of this fruit. Some seem to think there 
is nothing grown to-day that begins to compare with the olden time varieties, 
while others see vast improvements. 

All authorities seem to agree that the muskmelon doubtless originated in 
tne Orient, and even to-day it forms a staple article among the peoples of 
Persia, Italy and Egypt. 

The muskmelon is very easily susceptible of mixing where varieties are 
adjacent, and through this means many strains and types have been brought 
out. The evolution of the cultivated American muskmelon is interesting. 
One writer claims that Columbus brought the first seed to this country. There 
are very few instances on record of direct introduction of varieties in earlier 
times. In recent years the U. S. Department of Agriculture has introduced 
many which may have a marked influence in the future. The famous 
Cassaba or Persian variety is said to have been introduced directly from 
Smyrna to the light soils of lower New Jersey, where it has flourished and 
become noted for its sweetness and fine flavor. It is believed that most of our 
thin skinned, finely netted and highly flavored varieties are of Persian origin. 
The rougher or hard skinned varieties, like those so commonly grown in 
France, Italy and other European countries and known in this country as 
cantaloupes or rock melons, may have had a similar origin, but have been 
developed differently. 

The muskmelon most commonly known to Americans is, I believe, of 
the Persian type. While some cantaloupes are grown, and there are now and 
then varieties showing the cantaloupe characteristics, they nevertheless do not 
meet with as great success. 

There has been more attention given to breeding the muskmelon during 
the past ten years than ever before. While many of the earlier varieties are 
still standard, new ones are rapidly taking their places. As with other 
European fruits, conditions have so changed under the new environment in 
this country that our present cultivated muskmelons are what may be termed 
strictly an American product. 

After much correspondence the data at hand seem very inadequate. It 
was thought that a large number of our varieties would be found to be of 
known origin, but they are not. Very few varieties are of known parentage. 
The varieties are largely chance seedlings or strains of well known varieties. 

Much general information was obtained through the two large wholesale 
seed firms of Chauncey P. Coy & Son, proprietors of the Elkhorn Valley Seed 
Gardens, and Frank T. Emerson, general manager of the Western Seed and 
Irrigation Company, both of Waterloo, Nebraska. These firms are large 
wholesale growers of muskmelon seeds, and largely supply these seeds for our 
large seed houses. When any of the seed firms have obtained or originated 
a new variety, they turn the same over to these firms for future supplies. 

The writer is unable to tabulate the data as completely as possible, but 
offers the following as a beginning toward that end; 


THE MUSKMELON. 217 


VARIETY. ORIGIN. INTRODUCER. YEAR. 
Extra Early Hack- 
ensack ........Selected Hackensack ......... Peter Henderson & Co. 
Rocky etord...-.- a Netted Gem......... Rocky Ford Growers. 
ORGIES anaes z Miller’s Cream ......Vaughan’s Seed Store. 
Surprise ......... White Japan 
X Orange Christiana. Price & Knickerbocker. 1876 
Ban Views. ais... Cassaba X Large California... W. Atlee Burpee & Co.1877 
Chicago Market ..Selected Montreal............. Vaughan. 
Anne Arundel.... ; Baltimore Market....J. Balgiano & Son. 
Miller’s Cream ...Sill’s Hybrid X Cassaba......J. J. H. Gregory & Sons.1885 
Massouri ©... ....Accidental Sport......-<-.:.....D. Landreth & Sons. ...1892 
Extra Early Roof. Up Oe eS ease "s ON en cites 
Cosmopolitan .... American X European (?)....D. M. Ferry & Co. 
Green _  Fleshed 
Osage ......... Selection of Grand View...... Johnson & Stokes. 
McCotter’s Pride.Sport of Peerless............. Ferry. 
rome. Masi anid 
Beauty ........Selected Jenny Lind..........J. M. Thorburn & Co. .1893 
Osage Gem.......Osage X Netted Gem......... Vaughan. 
WETEHOEE 55.2% <..'. Sporto PatleRose-y..:.-¢-s-r Ferry. 
Newport .........Selected Jenny Lind.......... Henderson. 
Jersey Belle ...... fe x Pe Mee Pe Johnson & Stokes. 
Bane Roses. ssc: - a ORGS Agha ccotnscodae Waualnehn: 
Grand View...... = Emerald Gem....... 5 
HO PPUIES on ne =pc al 2s Imported from Syria.......... Henderson. 
Oklahoma .... ...Rocky Ford X Hackensack (?). J. W. Tetrick & Son. ..1902 
erinermVVIGeT ek OREIOM © ccicnaes 02 oes os seule a ore F. Barteldes & Co. 
Large California z 
AEE cies Ss Selected: Ruinyons sss .S5.1gs0 Cox Seed Co. 
Other varieties are largely chance seedlings or crosses. Doubtless much 


more definite information will be available later. 


The following abstracts that I have received through correspondence may 
also prove of interest in showing muskmelon development: 


BANQUET, GREEN-FLESHED OSAGE, DELMONICO AND A MrxEp FLESH UNNAMED 
VARIETY. 


We have sold three varieties of muskmelons to the houses that first 
catalogued them. The Banquet muskmelon was found by us in the hands of 
a gardener, who could give us no information about it save that he had grown 
it for a good many years and had first secured his seed from some other 
farmer or gardener. We could not trace the matter back, and cannot say 
where or when the variety first appeared. The Green-fleshed Osage came 
from a variety called the Grand View (which was nothing more or less than 
an impure strain of Emerald Gem). While inspecting a crop of the Grand 
View we found a single vine bearing six well-developed melons of an entirely 
different type; we picked the melons and next season planted the seed, and 
neither the first season nor at any time since have we found so much as one 
single impurity in this variety. It came absolutely pure and true from the 
start, and it is worthy of note that this green-meated variety came from a yel- 
low-meated sort. We had only to continue planting until we had sufficient seed 
to sell, and then we sold-it to Johnson & Stokes, who named it Green-fleshed 
Osage because of its similarity in size and shape to the Red-meated Osage. 
The perfected Delmonico was sold by us to Peter Henderson & Co. after 
some five or six years of selection continued from a ‘sport’ or impurity found 
in a field of their Delmonico. This sort kept reverting to the parent type 
and was very hard to get pure and true to the new form. We have at one 
time and another saved and continued cultivation for several years on distinct 


218 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 


types of melons (usuallv sports found in fields of other sorts) to the number 
of twenty or thirty, only to find at last that the type we were working for 
could not be perpetuated. We have been working for eight years on a type 
of muskmelon in which each melon contains both yellow and green meat 
intermingled, but we have not yet succeeded in getting the variety sufficiently 
established to sell for introduction. This was produced from a patch in which 
alternate hills were planted to different varieties, and, curiously enough, is the 
result of crossing in this manner two yellow-meated varieties. We also note 
that the impurities that we throw out of our yearly trials of this cross are 
green-meated, and we have not yet found any melons in the cross with 
wholly yellow meat. We cannot offer any explanation of this fact, nor of 
what we have said about the Green-fleshed Osage. 


CHauNcEY P. Coy & Son. 
Lone Istanp Beauty MUSKMELON. 


A variety of the Hackensack type, originated on Long Island. It is of 
very superior quality, with green flesh, and densely netted. In shape it re- 
sembles the Hackensack, but is slightly more ribbed, and is decidedly the 
most attractive looking melon we have ever seen. Besides being the most 
beautiful, it is also the earliest of all. Out of a collection including every 
standard variety, it produced the first ripe melon of the season. This gives 
it especial value for market gardeners. J. M. THorpurn & Co. 


MILLeR CrEAM ME Lon. 


This melon was originated: by John D. Miller, of Elmira, N. Y., in the 
year 1878, it being doubtless the result of cross between Sill Hybrid and 
Cassaba. It has a very thick flesh, the seed cavity being very small, is of a 
salmon color, and melting in quality. The rind is thin and of a green color. 
The vine itself is a strong grower and is very productive, the ground being 
covered with fruit. This was first catalogued by us in the year 1885. 

Jas. J. H. Grecory & Son. 


OsSAGE AND OSAGE GEM. 


The Osage we believe to be an improved selection from Miller’s Cream 
which was introduced by J. J. H. Gregory, of Marblehead, Mass., who can 
tell you more about its origin. 

The Osage Gem is a cross between the Osage and Netted Gem, and was 
very carefully made by one of our Michigan growers. The Paul Rose was 
bred by Mr. Rose, being a carefully selected type of small, solid, round, 
thick meated Osage, and has a little more netting than the type of Osage 
which we use. VAUGHAN’S SEED STORE. 


FLAVor. 


I have never given any attention to muskmelons except in attempting to 
cross melons by cucumbers, or more particularly to influence the flavor by 


the application of cucumber pollen. In this I was never successful. 
(Prof.) Frep W. Carp. 


VINE PEACH AND GARDEN LEMON. 


We are the introducers of the Vine Peach and Garden Lemon. We do 
not think, however, that they would really belong to the muskmelon family, 
as they are not usually eaten in the natural condition, but are preserved or 
pickled. We have never been able to get them perfectly pure. There are 
always some fruits which are large in size and appear to be midway between 
cucumber and muskmelon, and we are inclined to think that this vegetable is 
from a hybrid or cross between the muskmelon and cucumber, but we do not 


THE MUSKMELON. 219 


know where they originated. The Vine Peach we found mentioned in the 
Chicago Inter Ocean about fifteen years ago, and we wrote to the lady. who 
mentioned this new vegetable and obtained all of her stock of seed. They 
have since then been renamed Vegetable Orange or Mango Melon by some 
of the Eastern seedsmen. The Garden Lemon was sent us by one of our 
Southern customers, who had no name for it, but simply thought that we 
would be interested in it. It is not really as desirable as the Vine Peach. 
IowA SEED Co. 


EDEN. 

I introduced the winter melon named Eden, and also have brought into 
prominence the famous Russian winter muskmelon, named Khiva (Agri. 
Dept., No. 114), and the N. E. Hansen muskmelon (Dept., No. 116). My 
business is strictly with winter melons, and I am the only one that has made a 
commercial success in that line. Have done quite a business with the U. S. 
Department of Agriculture in testing, and have sold them hundreds of dollars’ 
worth of seeds. J. F. Brown, Utah. © 


CALIFORNIA SEED FROM COLORADO. 
We get all our canteloupe seed from’ Rocky Ford, Col. 
A. SARBOUGH, 
Secretary Coachella Valley Producers’ Association, California. 


IDEAL. 

We have introduced only one muskmelon—our Ideal. It was originated 
by Prof. Price, of the Texas Agricultural and Mechanical College, College 
Station, Tex., and he sold us the entire interest in it. It is interesting that 
we had already named it the Ideal, when we received a letter from Prof. Price 
suggesting the same name. It is very productive, very sweet, and of better 
flavor than any melon with which we are acquainted. The flesh is a rich 
yellow, but occasionally we still find one with green flesh, as one of its parents 
was green-fleshed. Gro. TAir & Sons. 


NEw ORLEANS. 

Regarding the New Orleans Market Muskmelon, would say that it has 
been ‘the only muskmelon’ that gave satisfaction in the immediate vicinity of 
New Orleans. Northern varieties do not succeed so well; they have no taste 
the first year, and must be acclimated to be of any market value. Even the 
New Orleans Market Muskmelon does not produce the same sweet melon if 
the seed was grown North. Our truckers are, therefore, very anxious to pro- 
cure this seed genuine and of Southern production. 

The melon grows to a large size, larger than the large Hackensack; is 
deeply scalloped, and very roughly netted. Flesh, pale green to yellow, very 
deep, juicy, exceedingly sweet, and of a delicious flavor. 

C. W. EIcHLING. 


LARGE CALIFORNIA NUTMEG. 

The variety of melon called “Large California Nutmeg” is a variety that 
was grown for mary years by a melon grower on the Sacramento River, and 
was formerly known as the ‘Runyon Melon.’ We never heard its history or 
origin. It is the best large shipping cantaloupe that we know of, and we 
cannot find anything in the East to correspond with it. It is a very large 
oblong melon, solid, of a nutmeg character, and of a very fine flavor. It is 
considered the best late shipping melon in California, and commands the 
highest price. 

We have taken hold of this melon for the last two years, as it was par- 
tially run out, and have selected the seed so as to bring up the quality. . 

Cox Seep Co., California. 


ON GRAPE HYBRIDS 


, ee 


By N. B. White, West Norwood, Mass. 


The chief end of every living thing is to perpetuate itself, to reproduce 
itself, and from the standpoint of a naturalist the most perfect specimens of 
animals and plants are found in their natural wild state, as they have come 
down to us under the law of the survival of the fittest, and that the “razor- 
backed hog” and the wild, seedy and skinny fruits are the most perfect speci- 
mens of their kind. But from the standpoint of the epicure, the greater 
amount of meat the animal has, and the greater amount of pulp the fruit has, 
the nearer perfection they are in his estimation, and to produce more meat and 
more pulp the agriculturist and the horticulturist are devoting their utmost 
energy, and the future results of this energy, as regards fruits, and more 
especially the grape, it is my purpose here to consider. 

The changed environments and the high culture tend to defeat the natural 
tendency and aim of the vine when in its natural state and condition. Fewer 
and smaller seeds and better quality are the chief aim of the experimenter, and 
he rejoices over this distortion of the vine, as the insect rejoices over the 
excrescence produced by itself having punctured the leaf. This distortion, 
produced by changed environments, high culture, hybridizing and crossing, 
tends to produce sterility and to destroy that life principle stored in the seed, 
as is the case with the potato that produces no seed in Massachusetts. But a 
cross of the Wild Rocky Mountain upon the Early Rose in Minnesota and 
the seeds planted in Massachusetts produced seed balls, and fine, large tubers 
the second year. 

The tomato, when introduced some fifty years ago, had many seeds and 
but little pulp, with a large empty space in the seed cavity, but now the 
tomato is solid and has but few seeds, and I predict that fifty years hence the 
best tomatoes will be propagated by cuttings or slips. This same tendency 
to sterility is observable among grapes. We have a number of seedless grapes, 
and the writer recently produced another. Most blossoms of hybrids have 
recurved stamens and fail to properly pollenate the stigma. When using 
staminate vines as the male parent we get a large majority of staminate vines. 
The writer once pollenated Black Hamburg with staminate hybrid of vulpina 
and labrusca and eight vines, and all but one were staminate. As such 
results are liable to occur, it may be a question as to the expediency of using 
a staminate vine as a pollenater. Another case, where pollen from a her- 
maphrodite blossom was used: Seven plants were obtained. Six were fertile, 
one was staminate, and five of them worthy of cultivation, Just what the differ- 
ence may be as regards vigor, healthfulness and quality between using pollen 
from a staminate blossom or a hermaphrodite blossom is yet to be deter- 


222 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 


mined, but the general impression is in favor of the staminate blossom as a 
pollenizer. 

The tendency to sterility from the changed conditions is mentioned here 
to induce experimenters to secure, before it is too late, specimens of all of 
our wild native species of grapes, that they may be preserved and be used 
in the future to rejuvenate the declining vigor of the cultivated vines. 

In my experiments in hybridizing and crossing, I find that prepotency and 
reversion play a very important part, and the prepotency of Vitis vulpina 
seems to exceed that of all others. It shows itself strongly where there is but 
a fraction of its blood combined, but shows less strength where Vitis Lince- 
cumii is a part of the combination. Reversion is a subtle element in the 
production of crosses and hybrids, but is less likely to show itself in the first 
generation than later on. It is freaky and unstable. There is sometimes a 
reversion to one parent and sometimes to the other, and the best grape that I 
have produced is where Vitis vulpina, Vitis labrusca and Vitis vinifera 
were combined. Vitis vulpina and Vitis labrusca controlled the vine and 
Vitis vinifera the fruit. The Vitis vinifera used was the Black Hamburg, 
and the hybrid is of the same color and size as the Black Hamburg and has 
a decided vinifera quality, ripens early and is hardy. I am fully convinced 
that our best table grapes will always be produced from the three above 
mentioned species. 

As some grapes do much better on roots of other vines, the writer is now 
growing graft stocks for the purpose of testing all new hybrids on. These 
stocks are from a very vigorous, hardy vine that will take the graft readily. 

If the perfect blossom and fertility of the vinifera grapes are brought 
forward to disprove the tendency to sterility of crosses and hybrids, I would 
say that there is no evidence that the vinifera grapes have been brought up 
to the present state of perfection by crossing or hybridizing. On the contrary, 
it is probable that they have been improved by long years of selection. 

I am now devoting my attention to the establishing of a basis for future 
viticulture by combining such species as are most likely to furnish desired 
qualities when the seeds of these combinations are planted. The accompany- 
ing diagram will show a combination having in it V. labrusca, V. vulpina 
and V. vinifera for table grapes; another has in its combination V. labrusca, 
V. vulpina, V. Lincecumii, V. rupestris and V. vinifera. The former combina- 
tion should furnish large bunches and berries, and the latter should furnish 
large clusters and small barries. Such has been my experience with these 
combinations thus far. 


kd 


Origtn of 


Vo-Hamburg 


yr.” 
: 
= 
ol\> 
Ac 
| 
ft k 
on& 
ae 


L. Vitis Labrusca 
V. Vitis Vinifera 
R.Vitis Riparta 


PRACTICAL POINTS FROM THE BREEDING OF 
STRAWBERRIES AND BUSH-FRUITS 


By Fred W. Card, Horticulturist, State Experiment Station, Kingston, R. I. 


The work of the plant breeder never lacks interest. He is led on by 
many deep-thought theories and more delightful possibilities. Limitless im- 
provement seems to be within his reach, but in practice he meets with many 
difficulties. Nature does not lightly grant her favors. She may coyly keep 
them just beyond the grasp of the would-be possessor while steadily luring 
him onward. 

In the breeding of strawberries and bush-fruits some difficulties have 
been met. To call attention to them is the purpose of this paper, rather than 
to record the results accomplished. In 1899 strawberry plants of a number of 
different varieties were fruited in hills. Careful records were kept of the 
yield of each plant. The berries from each picking were counted and 
weighed, observations being made upon the color, firmness and other qualities 
of the plant and fruit. Selecting from these records two varieties, Bismarck. 
shows an average yield of 106.4 grams per plant; Glen Mary shows an average 
yield of 460.1 grams per plant. Practical selection often stops at this point. 
The Bismarck would be discarded, the Glen Mary planted; or perhaps the 
selection may go one step farther, a step indicated by the following record. 
Parker Earle produced berries weighing on the average 2.81 grams each. 
Hunn produced berries weighing 5.86 grams on the average. Here, then, is 
another factor which may influence the grower in his selection of variety; but 
let us look further. Plant No. 19 of the Bismarck variety produced only 15.3 
grams of fruit, weighing on the average 2.18 grams each. Plant No. 14 of 
the same variety produced 233.6 grams, the average weight being 5.99 grams 
each. Plant No. 7 of the Glen Mary variety produced 286.6 grams of fruit, 
weighing 4.62 grams each on the average. Glen Mary No. 12 produced 756.3 
grams, the average weight being 6.10 grams. Parker Earle produced the 
smallest fruit of any of the varieties grown, the average weight being 2.88 
grams, but the average weight of fruit from plant No. 18 was 1.29, while the 
average weight from plant No. 6 was 4.04. Hunn produced the largest fruit, 
the average weight being 5.86, but the average weight from plant No. 9 was 
4.17, while that from plant No. 13 was 7.5 grams. 

In 1900 five plants were chosen in a field of Kansas raspberries as the 
fruit approached ripening. The plants chosen were those which appeared to 
be among the best plants so far as the eye could determine, yield, size and 
general character of plant being considered. Of these five, plant No. 3 pro- 
duced 648 grams of fruit, the average weight being 1.13 grams each. Plant 


226 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 


No. 5 produced 1,130 grams, the average weight being 1.33 grams. In other 
words, plant No. 5 showed an increase of 75% in yield over plant No. 3 and 
an increase of 18% in size. In 1900 these same plants produced as follows: 
Plant No. 3, 1,104.4 grams of fruit, averaging 0.96 grams each; plant No. 5, 
2,393.5 grams, averaging 1.05 grams each. Plant No. 5 showed, therefore, in 
this year an increase of 117% in yield and 9% in size over plant No. 3. It 
should be remembered that these are comparisons between five of what ap- 
peared to be the best plants at the time of selection. The second year as 
fruiting approached five poor plants were also selected, choosing not the 
smallest plants which could be found, but those of apparently the poorest type 
and generally small. The average yield of these five plants, not to take the 
poorest one, was 154.3 grams, the average weight of berry being .74 grams. 
Comparing plant No. 5 with the average of these five poor plants shows that 
its increase in yield over their average yield was 1457%, the increase in size of 
fruit being 42%. 

These figures are introduced to emphasize the fact of individuality in plants. 
There is a radical difference in behavior of different plants of the same variety 
in the same field. What contributes to this individuality? Probably many 
things. The environment, though apparently the same, may in fact differ 
greatly. Perhaps in distributing the fertilizer a larger amount may have 
fallen near one plant. Soil moisture is variable; perhaps the conditions in one 
place may be more favorable. Perhaps one plant may have suffered from an 
insect attack or from some mechanical accident which no longer shows. Per- 
haps the vigor of the plants may have differed when set, owing to one plant 
having been grown under better conditions than another. Even under the 
best of conditions of field culture such possibilities always exist. Yet when 
ample allowance has been made for them all, there still remains the fact that 
the inherent vigor of the individuals must differ. How great this difference 
is, is a point needing further investigation. Probably it is often underesti- 
mated; perhaps in our zeal for plant breeding we overestimate it. To learn 
something of its importance in connection with these strawberries has been one 
of the points under investigation, and it is in connection with this trial that 
some of the difficulties have been met. 

The most productive plant from eight of the most promising varieties was 
chosen from which to continue the selection, the aim being to constantly 
select young plants from the parent giving the largest yield. The first 
obstacle met was found to be the loss of vigor entailed in the production of 
a heavy crop. In one or two cases the plant producing the largest yield was 
so thoroughly exhausted thereby that young plants could not be obtained 
with which to carry on the selection. In others, they were evidently lacking 
in vigor. The first move, then, was to provide against this difficulty by 
selecting from all the plants of a variety under trial, before fruiting, a suffi- 
cient number of young plants with which to carry on the selection, then all 
are discarded except those from the plant which at fruiting time proves most 
productive. This adds greatly to the number which must be cared for at any 
given time and complicates the work. 

A second question has since arisen. It is always somewhat troublesome to 
keep plants in hills, and particularly so when, as in this case, a few runners 


BREEDING STRAWBERRIES, ETC. 227 
tnust first be permitted to grow a sufficient number of plants with which to 
continue the selection. Does the yield from a single hill represent the actual 
value of a variety, as commonly grown, or would a better representation be 
obtained by giving the plant when first set plenty of room and allowing it to 
make plants at will, forming an individual colony made up of the mother plant 
and its offspring, then using the yield from this colony as a basis of estimate? 
This comes nearer what the plant must do in actual practice, since nearly all 
strawberries are grown commercially in matted rows. In future this is to be 
our plan of selection. 

The difficulty of securing uniformity of conditions, as already suggested, 
is an ever present one, and demands the utmost care at every turn. Not 
only do conditions of soil and surroundings differ, but conditions of care. 
Probably no two men would set a plant in the same way, and perhaps no two 
would hoe it in the same manner. We are still a long way from absolute 
accuracy in such matters. 

Some work has been under way in crossing. Among bush-fruits my first 
experience was at Cornell University, where a number of crosses were made 
between different varieties and species of raspberries and blackberries. The 
general results showed nothing of value as a result of violent crosses; in fact, 
nothing worth perpetuating resulted from any of the work, but the most 
promising offspring came from crosses between parents most closely related. 
Perhaps a few brief notes from these taken from “Bush-Fruits” may have a 
bearing upon recent discussions. Of five plants of Gregg X Shaffer in fruit, 
four resembled Gregg in character of plant and one resembled Shaffer. In 
character of cluster three approached Shaffer and two resembled Gregg. 
The fruit in one case closely approached Shaffer, while in others it was inter- 
mediate or nearer the Gregg. Of five plants of Fontenay X Cuthbert, three 
resembled the female parent in character of growth, one the male, and one 
was intermediate. Thirty-one plants of Shaffer X Cuthbert were grown. The 
majority resembled the male plant in character of plant and the method of 
propagation. Some produced typical red raspberry fruits, while the fruit of 
others was dark, resembling Shaffer, Three plants of Ada X Cuthbert all 
resembled the male parent in character of cane. In Rhode Island not enough 
plants have as yet fruited from which to draw conclusions. 

A number of strawberry seedlings have been fruiting during 1901 and 
1902. In general it has been noticed that there is a great similarity between 
the seedlings of the same cross, though there are marked exceptions to this 
rule. In some cases seedlings are so similar that they would readily be con- 
sidered a single variety. A few observations were made upon the sex of 
offspring from perfect and imperfect parents. Although not observed fully, 
the following results will show something of the tendencies: 

Bubach (1) X Wilson (P). Seedlings, perfect 5, imperfect 8. 

Bubach (1) X Wm. Belt (P). Seedlings, perfect 8, imperfect 6. 

Crescent (1) X Glen Mary (P). Seedlings, perfect 22, imperfect 28, 
weakly perfect 4. In this case the perfect plants did not as a rule bear very 
many stamens. 

Glen Mary (P) X Wm. Belt (P), perfect 47, imperfect 1. Some were 
weak pollen bearers, being nearly imperfect. 


228 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 


Hunn (1) X Ideal (P), perfect 21, imperfect 9. 

McKinley (P) X Ridgeway (P), perfect 15, imperfect none. 

These observations seem to show a fairly equal division in influence of the 
two parents in the matter of sex. 

A few general notes upon seedlings of different crosses may be of interest. 

Wm. Belt X Wild strawberry. Plants of this cross all possess the char- 
acteristics of the wild plant, making an abundance of runners, with compara- 
tively small foliage. The characteristics of the wild fruit also persist, though 
with an increase in size and some variation in shape. The deeply set seeds and 
sharp corrugations, with bright color and a pronounced wild flavor, exist in all. 
One plant in particular showed a promising increase in size of fruit with a 
very desirable form. 

Hunn X Ideal. Behind this label we always expect a sturdy, low-growing 
plant with dark green foliage, bearing a short, roundish, dark red berry, with 
dark red flesh, rather sprightly in flavor, and ripening late. An occasional 
variation both in color of fruit and foliage occurs, but in the main the type is 
well marked. 

Crescent * Glen Mary follows Crescent closely in general characteristics, 
the fruits usually being even smaller. 

Glen Mary X Ridgeway has produced a strong, vigorous plant, rather 
light in color, fruit rather long and sometimes flattened, light colored and 
sweet. 

McKinley X Ridgeway produces light colored fruit, long and flattened at 
the apex; sweet, but rather lacking in sprightliness. In marked contrast to 
this general type, one plant produced very short, round fruit, almost as round 
as an apple, but possessing other general characeristics of the cross. 

The plants show considerable difference in their ability to resist rust. The 
Wm. Belt X Wild seedlings are nvarticularly susceptible. Among other varie- 
ties, here and there a plant would stand out in marked contrast with the rest 
of its family. 

No second generation plants have yet been fruited, so that it is impossible 
to speak of variations in the second generation. 

The chief difficulty to be overcome in obtaining desirable varieties by 
crossing lies in the large number of characters desired. These embrace vigor 
of plant and leaf, plant-making ability, resistance to rust, hardiness, pro- 
ductiveness, size of fruit, color, shape, including the way in which the hull is 
set, firmness, flavor, season of ripening, etc. Whether Mendel’s law is a fact 
or a fad, it is difficult to combine all these characters which are desirable in 
one berry. There is abundant room for advance. Our best berries are still 
deficient in some points. 


HYBRIDS AND DISEASES 


By L. H. Pammel, Botanist, State College, Ames, Iowa. 


In studying the diseases of plants the writer has been interested in ob- 
serving the comparative immunity of certain plants and the abundance of 
fungus diseases on others. Not only are there striking differences in plants 
that apparently belong to the same species, but these differences are noticeable 
in certain hybrid forms. In the “Life and Letters of Charles Darwin’ is an 
account of experiments made in England to breed a variety of potatoes that 
would be comparatively free from the potato rot fungus. It has been shown 
by Dr. Erwin F. Smith and others who have paid particular attention to the 
plant diseases that it is possible to breed certain varieties of plants that will 
be more resistant to the attacks of certain fungi. It seems to me that the 
attention of plant breeders should especially be called to the importance of this 
subject from an economic standpoint. In order to overcome the difficulties 
careful studies must first be made of the characteristics of the plants that are 
used for cross breeding purposes. I will cite a few illustrations of how the 
diseases have manifested themselves in the progeny by not paying sufficient 
attention to the question of eliminating bad qualities that exist in the parents. 
Where the hybrid or cross comes by chance this question cannot be eliminated, 
but where hybrids are produced as a result of careful hand pollination these 
undesirable points should be eliminated as far as possible. 

RaAspBerrY Hysrips ANp Diseases. A few years ago I obtained 
what was said to be a chance seedling of the red raspberry. I was 
told that it was a highly desirable plant, much hardier than the red 
raspberry, and free from diseases. A considerable number were planted in 
my garden. After a study of the plants I became convinced that this chance 
seedling was a hybrid between Rubus strigosus and Rubus occidentalis. In 
fruit it had partially the characteristics of both. The leaf was nearly inter- 
mediate between the two species, except it partook more of the character of the 
R. strigosus than the R. occidentalis. The stem was intermediate in color be- 
tween the two species, and its method of propagation was that of the black cap 
raspberry. For some years the anthracnose (Gloeosporium venetum) has 
been common in the vicinity of Ames upon several varieties of the black cap 
raspberry. Not far from this patch of black cap raspberries the new seedling 
raspberry was grown. For several years the plants were seemingly very 
thrifty, bore abundantly, and there was no evidence of disease. But during 
the last three years this parasite has been nearly as destructive to this hybrid 
seedling as to the black cap raspberry. I made a careful search for this 
fungus upon the red raspberries growing in the same vicinity in my garden, 
but without, however, finding any trace of this fungus, nor have I ever col- 


230 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 


lected it upon this host in this State. The fact that this fungus has occurred 
so abundantly upon this chance seedling, coupled with the other characters, 
leaves no doubt in my mind as to thehybrid origin of the seeding. (Since 
writing the above the writer has found the fungus in the red raspberry.) 
Prum Hysrips anp Diseases. For some years plum scab (Clado- 
Sporium carpophilum) has been abundant upon different varieties of the 
Prunus Americana. It is true that some years it is much more abundant 
than others, some years being so common as to seriously affect the market 
value of plums. The writer has never seen this fungus upon the European 
Prunus domestica or the Japan plum. Some varieties of the American plum 
are much more seriously affected than others. I was, therefore, very much 
interested in finding that certain hybrid varieties of the P. Americana crossed 
with the Japan plum had some of the plum scab. Of the seedlings obtained 
from the same experiments there are some varieties of the hybrids that are 
exempt, but in one variety the disease occurred successively for several years. 
THe Witp Cras. In our State the wild crab is seriously affected 
with several ‘fungus diseases, notably the cedar apple fungus (Roestelia 
pyrata) and the apple scab (Fusicladium dendriticum). Some varieties of 
Pyrus malus are also commonly affected with the apple scab, but never, so far 
as I know, with the cedar apple fungus. The Soulard crab, which is generally 
now regarded as a hybrid between the Pyrus malus and the Pyrus Iowensis, 
is usually free from the Roestelia, though occasionally I have seen a few dis- 
eased leaves when in proximity to the red cedar. It is also slightly affected 
with the apple scab fungus. The Mercer County crab, which by some writers 
has been regarded as a good form of Pyrus Jowensis, and by others has been 
regarded as a hybrid, and I am inclined to this latter view. It is very 
different with respect to its diseases from the Soulard crab. I have 
had a tree of this variety under .observation for eleven years, and he has 
watched from year to year in a general way the amount of fungus diseases 


affecting the fruit and leaves. In most seasons it is nothing unusual to find 
that a large number of the leaves are affected with the Roestelia pyrata. 
During all this time the writer has never seen this fungus upon the fruit or 
branches, and yet it has been very common upon both fruit and branches 
upon our wild crab. Apple scab is rather rare on the fruit, only occurring 
upon the leaves.* 

GOOSEBERRIES. The native wild goosberries in this State, both the 
Ribes gracile and R. Cynosbati, are seriously affected with the gooseberry rust 
(Accidium grossulariee). Taking the Champion as a type of the cultivated 
species of the European Ribes grossularie is not affected, at least not seri- , 
ously, with this fungus. A hybrid of this species and the R. gracile had a 
few diseased leaves and fruit the past spring, but generally speaking it is 
quite free from this fungus. In regard to the Septoria Ribis occurring upon 
both the wild species and the cultivated, I may say that the past season has 
been extremely detrimental to the gooseberries, the leaves falling off prema- 
turely. The hybrid has retained its leaves much longer than the cultivated 
gooseberry, indicating that the hybrid is superior in the quality of resistance 
to plant diseases as compared with the cultivated forms. 

In order that we may look up this matter a little more, I hope that 
anyone interested will give to me such information as he may have on this 
subject, and shall be greatly obliged if I could receive specimens. 


*Hume and Craig. Native Crab Apples and Their Cultivated Varieties. Proc. Iowa 
Acad. Sci. 7: 123. 


HYBRIDISM VS. SELECTION 
By F. W. Burbidge, Curator, Trinity College Botanical Gardens, Dublin, Ireland 


Hybrids are of two descriptions, those produced naturally or spontan- 
eously in the wilds, and those raised artificially in the garden, but there is 
no real distinction between them. We are told that a hybrid is the off- 
spring of two species, one or both of which at times may be either pollen or 
seed parent. But the day of a rigid belief in “pure species” of plants is 
past, and to say any plant is a species, simply means the expression of one’s 
own, or somebody else’s, judgment or opinion. A species is merely some 
botanist’s decision, and not nature’s decision, for how can nature be decided. 
seeing that evolution is continually going on? A species often includes an 
enormous number of individual plants varying more or less among them- 
selves, and which come more or less true from seed. A species is, in fact, 
often a very variable quantity, and its capacity for variation is absolutely 
unknown, except as it is experimented upon in the garden or elsewhere. Our 
ignorance of the natural history of plants is profound. Two so-called species 
grow in the same soil and situation, and belong to the same natural group 
or order, and yet while one is a useful food plant, the other is a virulent 
poison to men or other animals. 

Again, two plants called species, may grow on the Andes or Himalayas 
side by side, and yet, when brought to American or European gardens, the 
one may be quite hardy, while the other dies unless sheltered in an artificial 
temperature. Why plants thus vary in their secretions or products, and in 
hardihood, no one knows; that they do so is a fact patent to the most 
ordinary observer, and these problems await solution from the biologists of 
the future. 

Again, two related species will, when hybridized together, sometimes 
produce fertile offspring, and in other cases barren ones. Sometimes 
species A will fertilize species B, but species B will not fertilize species A, 
but why, no one knows. In other cases, two or more species will be recip- 
rocally fertile, but why this is so, neither physicist nor physiologist can say. 
any more than they can tell us why one plant secretes or makes sugar and 
another starch, and others wine and oil—nutritious food—healing medicines 
or deadly poisons. These so far are the secrets of nature’s great laboratory. 

But let us come to the hybrid. The whole history of hybrids is obscure, 
and in many cases the so-called records are most unreliable. In the case of 
so-called spontaneous or wild hybrids what has happened is this: The arm- 
chair botanist, knowing nothing of the circumstances of their origin or 
native environment, has simply named and described them as pure species! 
Now and then, as in the case of some orchids, a guess as to their parentage 


232 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 3 


has been made by collectors abroad and even rarely by botanists at home, 
and we have instances where orchids and other wild hybrids have been made 
over again by fertilizing the parent species in our hothouses here at home. 
Nevertheless there are thousands of wild hybrids lying obscured under Latin 
specific names in our books and herbaria throughout Europe and America 
to-day. As to garden hybrids, in the beginning of the past century it was 
thought impious to molest nature, and the early botanists and students of 
plant hybridism were pretty much in the position of the surgical vivisection- 
ists who, rightly or wrongly, experiment on living animals to-day. In a 
word, they worked in secret and scarcely wished or dared to tell the truth! 
It is curious to observe that while physical unions such as inarching or inocu- 
lation, budding and grafting, were looked upon as quite respectable and 
clever, the physiological unions by cross pollination were universally tabooed, 
and in Northern Europe more especially. I say in Northern Europe, because 
in South Europe, North Africa and the East, the necessity for fertilizing the 
fig tree and the dicecious date palm artificially had been carried out from 
very early times. - 

In English gardens hybrids have been reared designedly for a period of 
well night two hundred years. The first of garden hybrids recorded, in 
England was Fairchild’s Mule Pink, said to have been raised at Hoxton, 
near London, before 1719, between Dianthus caryophyllus, and D. barbatus ; 
that is to say, between the Carnation and the Sweet William. This and 
many other early hybrids were called “mules” from an erroneous belief that, 
like the horse and ass hybrid so called, all vegetable hybrids were likewise 
sterile. The early history of garden hybrids has been obscured by the secre- 
tive character of the early experimenters and the jealousy they felt of each 
other.* Also by a more or less superstitious fear of revealing or recording 
what at the time was regarded as an irreligious or sacrilegious interference 
with nature. There were also later on trade jealousies, and hybrids were 
either said to have come from abroad, whence their parents had come before 
them, or their origin was disguised and concealed under specific Latin names. 
One remarkable instance of these latter tactics being adopted on a large 
scale occurred when Messrs. Rollison, of Tooting, and other growers of 
Cape heaths, at a time when they were nearly as popular as orchids and 
begonias are to-day, reared numerous hybrids and seedlings all of which 
were credited to the Cape of Good Hope and duly christened with Latin 
names. 

Another potent source of error as to garden hybrids is due to the fact 
that, fertilization having been effected by wind or insects, the seedlings that 
varied were assumed to have been hybrids. In a word, the seeming inter- 
mediates were assigned the most probable or obvious parentage without any 
real proof. 

This brings me to the point of this paper, viz.: That the parentage of 
an enormous quantity of hybrids depends on mere “guesses at truth” and 
not on any accurate records whatever. It is difficult to estimate the dire 
results of this practice as a source of error, because intermediates are often 


*See Gardeners’ Chronicle, 1890, July 26, page 108. 


_ HYBRIDISM VS. SELECTION, 233 
produced in gardens by ordinary seminal variation, and without any hybrid- 
izing operation whatever. 

We are apt to attribute too much to hybridism as a motive power in pro- 
ducing variations, and even in the blending of characters among cultivated 
plants. 

Before we can be sure of what hybridism effects, we must know exactly 
how far the parent species themselves can vary as self-pollinated. It is 
self-evident that some species which so far as we know have never been 
hybridized can and do vary infinitely as cultivated. In a word, cultivation 
and the inter-crossing of varieties yield results at times almost, even if not 
quite, as great as does hybridism. The Chinese Primula, Cyclamen latifolium, 
the Gloxinia or Sinningia, many root crops and cultivated vegetables, which 
so far as we know have never been hybridized, yet vary as much as those 
plants which have been so originated. We have only to look at the immense 
variations in apples, pears and other domestic fruits in order to recognize the 
great central fact that cultivation—the crossing of seminal varieties—and 
human selection are quite as potent as, or even more so than, hybridism alone. 
Of course, hybridism as confined to so-called species and the cross breeding of 
varieties differ only in degree, both being sexual and physiological processes. 
Many of our type species even as wild plants are extremely variable from 
seed, just as many seminal garden varieties come practically true from seed! 
As a matter of fact the distinction between species and varieties is an arbi- 
trary one, but it is for the present a convenience to keep up the nominal 
distinction. Some day it will be recognized universally that garden species 
artificially reared are quite as distinct botanically and often a great deal 
more useful than the native or wild ones. Hybridism often, it is true, gives 
us a splendid starting place—a spring board, or a new field of variation as it 
were, but that field must be further improved by cross breeding and selection 
or the highest and best of practical results are lost, or in any case not 
actually realized. 

We must clearly grasp the fact that the three great factors in the making 
of plant products more useful or suitable to our daily wants are cultivation, 
the cross breeding of varieties, and a careful selection of the most suitable or 
desirable seedling kinds. Even cultivation and selection alone from wild 
plants, as in the carrot and parsnip of Vilmorin’s and Buckland’s experi- 
ments, will work wonderful transformations in only a few generations. 

The fourth factor, viz., hybridism, is potent in the origination of new 
races, as illustrated in the Tuberous rooted Begonias, the large flowered 
Cannas, the Gladiolus, Marliac’s colored Water Lilies, and many other things ; 
but the initial gain still depends on the other three factors for its full 
development. 

I doubt very much whether the newly discovered “Mendel’s law” will be 
of much practical service to the ordinary hybridist, or whether it will lead 
to a more precise and exact system of working among hybridists or breeders 
in the future. In conclusion, I may put forth the following suggestions to 
those who live in this country, fertile as it is in experimental stations and 
gardens of all kinds. As a rule, I know the best practical results in hybrid- 
izing and cross breeding have been obtained by going direct to the point, 


234 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 


but the losses have also been very great under this plan. The scientific way 
is to do one thing at a time, and work from the simple to the complex. In 
this way I would suggest that ten or a dozen suitable species should be 
selected for experimentation. 

One plot of individuals should be well cultivated and _ self-fertilized, 
their seeds being again sown so as to get at the simple results of good 
cultivation and selection alone. The plants in plot 2, under the same con- 
ditions, should be carefully hybridized, reciprocally if possible, and the seeds 
of these should be again sown and well grown. Selection might be made in 
both cases, the object in view being to decide whether the simple selection 
of self-fertilized seedlings does not play a larger and hybridization alone a 
smaller part in the evolution of garden plants than is at present believed to be 
the case. The experiments could then be continued with the same material, 
so as to determine the importance of the part played by the cross breeding 
of the selected varieties in both cases. As it is, we are in “going direct” 
working with unknown factors. We must first of all find out how our parent 
species behave under, 1, culture; 2, selection; 3, cross breeding, and 4, hybrid- 
ism, instead of hybridizing first and trusting to chance for our results. When 
we see the wonderful results attained among live stock, cattle and poultry, 
as well as among fruits, vegetables and flowers, by cross fertilization and 
selection, we may realize that after all hybridism is not everything in the 
evolution of the most useful animals and plants of both the farm and the 
garden. 


NOTES ON CALIFORNIA PLANT BREEDING 
By E. J. Wickson, University We tise, Berkeley, Cal. 


Plant breeding has been pursued in California ever since the establish- 
ment of the missions by the Spanish padres. The first of these establish- 
ments was made at San Diego in 1769, and here the first cultivated fruit was 
grown. Gardens surrounded also the missions established later as the padres 
proceeded northward through the coast region of the State. Many kinds of 
fruit were grown, and quite marked differences in the varieties of the same 
fruit were noted by visitors to these missions before the date of American 
occupation, and many of the fruits survived after that date. While the 
“mission grape” and the “mission fig” were the same at all the missions and 
indicate continuous propagation by cuttings, the mission olive has local varia- 
tions which have never been accounted for. The deciduous fruits varied 
greatly and seem to indicate selection from seedlings. There is no evidence 
that the padres practiced budding or grafting, and there are some reasons 
for thinking that they relied upon growth from seed and secured better 
varieties here and there by selection, although they developed nothing by the 
process equal to the varieties known to Europeans and Americans at the 
middle of the last century. 

Very soon after the American occupation and the announcement of gold 
discovery, a sharp interest arose in new varieties of fruits upon the widely 
prevalent idea that such varieties would be better adapted to local soils and 
climates than the popular sorts of the humid regions of America and Europe. 
There were thousands of seedlings to select from, because seeds and pits 
were easily brought along the various routes followed by the pioneers, while 
the shipment of nursery stock was very difficult and expensive. The first 
fruits grown in the State by Americans were counted worth as much for seed 
as for pulp, so sharp was the demand for the multiplication of trees. Many 
very satisfactory seedlings were fruited, some of which have ever since main- 
tained their places in the fruit lists of the State. When the introduction of 
grafted trees from all parts of the world began by enthusiastic horticulturists 
who came from all civilized countries to the new El Dorado, there became 
available many new elements of parentage. It may be doubted whether in 
any part of the world so many varieties came to fruiting at the same time as 
were to be found in Central California. The growth of seedlings continues 
still, in the belief that the wonderfully favorable conditions for growth would 
produce horticultural wonders in size, beauty and quality. Of course, not all 
such anticipations were realized. Selection of seedlings began to be pursued 
upon a rather more rational ground, namely, to secure particular adaptations to 
local needs in season of ripening, in suitability for preservation and transporta- 


236 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW ‘YORK. 


tion, and in many other characters, which were seen to be locally desirable. 
How widely and how definitely also this selection of seedlings was pursued and 
what satisfactory results were secured are shown in considerable detail in a 
paper which the writer contributed to the Proceedings of the American Pomo- 
logical Society, Session of 1895. This watching for wonders in chance seed- 
lings is still a passion of the California fruit grower, and desirable acquisitions 
are still being disclosed, although each year brings new casualties to the fruit 
lists. There are probably not one-tenth as many varieties of all kinds of fruits, 
both citrus and deciduous, now growing in California as there were twenty 
years ago. Although many new varieties have been secured both by selection 
of seedlings and by the higher arts of plant breeding, ten times as many have 
been dropped from the lists, not because they were failures as fruits, but be- 
cause they did not meet the very sharp requirements of commercial fruit 
growing as now pursued in California. 

During the last decade plant breeding in California has rapidly widened 
in scope and advanced in aim and method. Though our most distinguished 
plant breeder, Mr. Luther Burbank, began his California life and effort as 
eatly as 1875, it was not until some years later that results began to appear 
and the people to understand his lofty purposes and wonderful achievements. 
This disclosure of a horticultural prophet of the highest type has naturally 
stimulated plant breeding and led to higher arts and greater ambitions, and 
the results secured by others than Mr. Burbank are becoming notable. It has 
seemed to me that even a rough sketch of what other Californians than Mr. 
Burbank had achieved, with some mention of their beliefs and methods, would 
be acceptable, and would indicate that under the favoring conditions in Cali- 
fornia excellent work was being done by many enthusiastic and devoted plant 
breeders. This elimination of Mr. Burbank is necessary because his work 
alone, even cursorily discussed, would occupy more space than this writing 
should claim; besides, information about him and his work was given by the 
writer in four issues of the Sunset Magazine, San Francisco (December, 
1gor, and February, April and June, 1902,), to which the reader is referred. 

For the purpose of securing up to date and authentic data from Cali- 
fornia plant breeders I addressed letters of enquiry to those whom I knew 
to be engaged in this work. All did not comply with my request for informa- 
tion, and if omissions are noticed they may be due to this fact. The replies 
to these enquiries follow: 


The Loganberry and the Mammoth blackberry are the only plants of 
any value that I have originated. 

In August, 1881, I planted the seed of the common wild blackberry, or 
dewberry, of California, botanically known as the Rubus ursinus, gathered 
from plants on one side of which was growing a kind of evergreen black- 
berry known as the Texas Early, and on the other side of which was growing 
an old variety of red raspberry. The Texas Early has a growth of cane 
and leaves similar to the Lawton, although much less vigorous, and in our 
mild climate is growing winter and summer. It has a small round berry 
of more acidity than the Lawton and probably of poorer flavor. The rasp- 
berry referred to has been growing in this place for the last forty years, and 
I am unable to ascertain what variety it is, although it is of a type similar to 
the Red Antwerp. It is not, however, the Red Antwerp as we have been 
growing it here. From this seed there grew about one hundred plants. 


CALIFORNIA PLANT BREEDING. 237 


In the summer of 1883 these fruited and there appeared one plant which 
was undoubtedly a cross between the raspberry and the R. ursinus. The 
fruit was larger and earlier than the raspberry or any blackberry, except 
the ursinus, ripening about the middle of May; the appearance of the berry 
on the surface was something like the raspberry, being less indented and of 
more even surface than a blackberry; the color a bright glowing red, becom- 
ing very dark and finally, when dead ripe, of a dull purplish-red color. The 
berry has a core like the blackberry and parts from the calyx the same as a 
blackberry. The leaves of the vine are almost identical with the wild Rubus, 
being somewhat larger. The canes are also like the wild Rubus, but larger 
and more vigorous; it has the same small, sharp spines, and, like it, is with- 
out adventitious root buds, but multiplies from the stolons or tips and from 
seed. The fruit, when cooked, has the same rich acidity as the wild Rubus, 
there being only a suggestion of the taste of the raspberry in the cooked 
fruit, but in the jelly there is a more decided raspberry flavor. This red 
berry is universally known here as the Loganberry. It is an enormous 
grower and bearer, there having been gathered in this city full twenty-five 
pounds of fruit from one plant in one season. In Southern California it is 
fast displacing all other blackberries. 


The other plants produced at this time, being crosses between the 
ursinus and the Texas, also developed into an entirely new type of black- 
berry, most of them of good quality; equally good for canning and jams as 
the Loganberry or the wild Rubus, and almost as early in ripening. 


Since 1881 I have planted a good many seeds of this Rubus ursinus 
fertilized with the Texas Early. About twelve years ago there appeared 
among these seedlings—and it is uncertain from what year’s planting it 
came—a remarkable blackberry. The canes are enormous. I have a plant 
now growing in my grounds which grew one cane or stalk last year, for this 
year’s fruiting, of one hundred and forty-nine feet of fruit wood. This 
single plant will cover with foliage a wall forty feet long and from six to 
eight feet wide. The fruit is equally colossal; berries are frequently found 
two and one-half inches long. The fruit is similar to that of the wild Rubus, 
being less sharply acid, and when perfectly ripe is sweet and delicious. This 
berry I have named the “Mammoth.” Its fruit is similar to the Logan- 
berry, but less acid. The Mammoth fruits perhaps a couple of weeks later 
than the Loganberry, and is jet black in color. 


The raspberry parent of the Loganberry is, like most raspberries, prone 
to spread from adventitious rootbuds; the Texas Early is also a perfect 
nuisance in that respect. The Rubus ursinus has no adventitious rootbuds, 
but propagates entirely from the tip. And it is a singular fact that, in 
the thousansd of seedlings of the Loganberry and of the crosses between 
the Texas and the ursinus and- crosses between plants thus crossed, not a 
single plant has been found that had adventitious rootbuds, but, like the 
female ursinus parent, all reproduce from the tips or seed. As is well 
known, the raspberry has a perfect bi-sexual flower. The Rubus ursinus, 
sexually, is divided into the male and the female. Such a thing as a bi- 
sexual flower in the Rubus ursinus 1s unknown, and it is a characteristic of 
that plant, growing wild in the woods, while the cane of the male plant 
is very much smaller and apparently less vigorous than the female, the male 
ultimately speads in rich soil and completely chokes out the female plants 
so that in a few years the berry patches become entirely barren, being con- 
stituted entirely of male plants. It is very noticeable in cases where the 
woods have been burned over: for the first few years, the burned district will 
produce many blackberries; in a few years, however, the productive berries 
entirely disappear and the male berry takes entire possession. 

The flowers of the seedlings which I have grown have been mostly bi- 
sexual and very large. I never yet have seen a flower of the Loganberry or 
of any of its seedlings that was not bi-sexual and perfect. Very many, how- 


238 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 


ever, of the crosses between the ursinus and the Texas are uni-sexual female, 
but I never yet have seen a flower of any of my seedling plants that was unt- 
sexual male, like the ursinus produces. 

My experience with the hybridizing of the Loganberry and the Mam- 
moth blackberry with each other and other fruits, has resulted in some 
very interesting, and, in many cases, peculiar horticultural productions. The 
seedlings of the Loganberry, having been propagated in this State by the 
thousand, very many of them by myself, have as far as I know, resulted in 
the reproduction of the Loganberry type only; I never yet have heard of one 
of these seedlings returning ‘to either a raspberry or a blackberry. The 
fruit of these seedlings is always the same red color, the same general flavor, 
and the vines have the same general appearance; but, as in the case of all 
seedling plants, the fruit of ninety-nine out of a hundred plants is not equal 
in any respect to the original, in fact they are mostly worthless. 

I have made many crosses of the Loganberry with my seedlings of the 
Texas and the ursinus. No. 1 is a cross of the Logan with a pistillate product 
of the Texas and ursinus; No. 2 is a cross of the Logan with the wild 
ursinus; No. 3 is a cross of the Logan with the Mammoth; No. 4 is a cross 
of a pistillate product of the Texas and the ursinus with the ursinus. 

The result of all these crosses has been a most peculiar failure. Not 
a single one has been prolific, although in most instances the blossoms have 
both pistils and stamens perfectly developed in the same flower. A few 
have been pistillate (uni-sexual female). Not a single one has been uni- 
sexual male. It would be supposed that such flowers would produce fruit, 
but they are utterly barren. Out of hundreds of plants I have not found 
a single perfect berry and very few imperfect ones. These hybrids, while 
perfect and valuable as producers of fruit, and constant in reproducing them- 
selves, seemingly refuse to be a party to any more crosses. 

el EOGANe = Sanita Grier 


While not entirely so, yet most of our work is done by hybridizing. 
Some of our results are: 

Snapdragon Sweet Peas (“Pure White,’ “Light Pink,” “Deep Purple’). 
—The standard never expands, but closely overlaps the wings, giving the 
flower a bud-like form. (Introduced, 1901.) 

Sweet Pea (Giant-Flowered “Chamberlain’’).—While all cupid sweet 
peas have larger sized flowers than the same varieties of the original tall type, 
this one is truly entitled to the name Giant-Flowered. The extraordinary 
size of the flower is emphasized by being produced in wonderful abundance 
upon such dwarf compact plants. Striped rosy pink on white ground. (In- 
troduced, 1900.) 

Fall Nasturtium “Croesus.”—This is a distinct new climbing Nasturtium. 
Foliage rich and dark. Flowers are of immense size, rich sulphur yellow. 
Each petal is splashed or tiped with red. The two upper petals are marked 
with large peacock-feather markings of deep red. The lower petals are also 
marked with the peacock eye, large and distinct, but of a soft rose color. 
This variety has the peculiarity of commencing to flower with the yellow 
and red markings, and as the growth of the vine continues there will be 
flowers of rose red, with yellow lines upon them and often four or five dis- 
tinct flowers will be upon the same vine. (Introduced, 1903.) 

Ivy Leaf Nasturtiums.—The original was propagated in Europe—came 
very untrue to type and of one color. We have succeeded in not only get- 
ting a true type but, by crossing, some twenty different colors. 

Unique Sweet Pea. “Salvation Lassie.’”—This is new departure in sweet 
peas. The standard is unusually wide and well expanded, yet curving so 
curiously over the wings as to suggest a bonnet. Color a soft shade of deep 
rose throughout. (Introduced, 1902.) 

L. C. Routzaun, Manager, 
McClure Seed Company, Arraya Grande, Cal. 


CALIFORNIA PLANT BREEDING. 239 


I have fruited many seedlings, but have not produced anything superior 
to what we already had. From 1869 to 1878, when there was no sale for 
pears and no codling moths, we could pick up free of charge all the pears we 
wanted in orchards where they had dropped. Many men raised their own 
pear seedlings. One year I selected 400 out of 60,000 seedlings grown from 
grafted fruit, worked them high on small limbs of old trees, these nearly 
all fruited in four and five years, but none proved superior to those varieties 
we had in cultivation. I have the same experience with plums of which 
there are two good varieties not yet introduced. 

Three years ago we selected out of 120,000 apricot seedlings 500 and 
budded them high on peach trees, some show very well for bearing, size and 
ripening. We have also a lot of almonds on trial, worked the same way, 
high on old trees. JoHN Rock, 


California Nursery Company, Niles, Alameda Co., Cal. 


There are at Home Orchard, two apples, one apricot and two peaches 
that I think have some claims for excellence, all chance seedlings. 

One of the apples is a seedling of the Grindstone, somewhat larger—a 
yellow ground with light and darker red stripes—shape flatish round—both 
stem and eye cavities deep—stem slender, core very small; seeds plump and 
dark. Fruit fine grained, moderately juicy, rich, with a slight acid flavor—a 
good eating apple at Christmas and will keep till May or June. Tree an 
upright, strong, healthy grower. The original tree grew just within the 
Fresno grove of “Big Trees” (Sequoia gigantea) and is twenty-five or thirty 
years old. A few trees have been propagated and sent out as Sequoia. 

The other apple originated here—a cross of White Winter Pearmain with 
G. N. Pippin. It retains the peculiar flavor of the Pearmain with the rich 
sharp acid of the Pippin. Color a greenish yellow, size medium, shape flat- 
ish oblate, with prominent ribs, will keep to ay or later. Not handsome 
in either color or shape, but many who have tested it think it the finest flav- 
ored they have ever tasted. Tree a good worwer, healthy—spreading. None 
have been propagated—no name. 

The apricot is a seedling of Blenheim, and blooms several days later— 
fruit large, flatish oval, color not quite so dark as the parent; flavor about 
the same, ripens evenly. Tree a very healthy, rapid grower and free from 
gum, very prolific—not propagated—no name—originated here. 

A lemon colored cling peach is highly thought of in many orchards of 
this vicinity—large when properly thined, sometimes a little blush in the 
sun—no red at the seed, which is small—considered our best canning cling. 
The tree is upright and the most rapid and healthy grower I know, and 
comes true from the seed. The original tree was among a few others planted 
in “early days” at a mining camp near Mariposa, and lived and bore fruit 
without fence or care for many years—it was a noted tree—a grand nursery 
stock. 

The other peach is a lemon yellow freestone, medium to large in size, 
nearly round with a little bright red in the sun—flesh a bright yellow to the 
seed—very similar to Muir, but more juicy and not quite so sweet—firm, and 
we like it for canning—carries well—ripens about the first of September— 
holds well on the tree, which is a tsrong, upright grower. I think it is a cross 
of the above cling with some freestone. It is known at the hotels along the 
stage line to “the valley” as “Yosemite,” and is the best peach they get. No 
trees outside of Home Orchard—originated here. 


FRANK FemMmons, Ahwahnee, Madera Co., Cal. 


We have not done much cross-fertilizing of plants excepting in Sweet 
Peas, and on these lines have done a great deal of work since about 1890: 
The first Cupid discovered by us was in 1894—a pure white. In 1895 we 


240 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 


discovered another Cupid—Pink, or Blanche Ferry. We crossed both, as 
well as crossing numerous tall varieties, which seemed to break up the 
strains, and while frequently we would not find any Cupids from such 
crosses for some years, they were all apt to throw Cupids even though we 
planted the seed of tall ones. We now have Cupids of every variety that exists 
in the tall sorts, or more than one hundred. 

We saved the first Bush in 1895, although we had seen them before and 
had not tried to do anything with them. We began crossing, and now have 
no less than fifty different colors in the Bush. We have ourselves sent out 
twenty-five tall Sweet Pea novelties, introducing most of them through 
W. Atlee Burpee & Co., of Philadelphia. 

Sweet Peas must be crossed when the bud is quite young before any 
pollen has caught on the pistil. We have done most of our work by simply 
taking all the stamens off the plant to be crossed and bringing new pollen to 
it, although some claim that we should mix the pollen of the plant itself 
with the new one. 

The first year after the seed of the cross is planted it is very apt to 
show a very inferior reversion to old pink or white, or an inferior red, white 
or purple. The plants, however, planted again the second year begin to show 
new strains. This is not always so, since sometimes we get a handsome 
flower the first year, but it is never a fixed type, and the year following is 
sure to break. 

The majority of novelties, however, are not developed by cross-fertiliza- 
tion, but by selection. There is always something a little different from its 
fellows in any field of plants, and a selection can be developed to create a 
considerable change. 

The Morse Lettuce is a selection of white seeding plants out of Black 
Seeded Simpson and then developed for a hardier variety. Pink Prizetaker 
Onion is a selection out of the common Yellow Prizetaker, and so on. In 
developing stocks this way we always keep each plant separate, as some 
plants will produce their kind and others will not do so, and if they are mixed 
we might never be able to get a fixed stock. In one strain of Sweet Pea, for 
instance, this year we have 270 individual selections, and we have had as 
high as 305. 

On all of the standard Onions, Lettuces and Carrots we make an extra 
selection of one hundred plants, roots or bulbs, and from this hundred we 
save ten individuals and mix the other ninety. Out of the ten individuals 
we choose one for a breeder, and then carry the work on again from that 
with our hundreds and tens. This is to breed up a pure stock. 

In breeding novelties it is very important that one has a large trial 
ground so as to try stocks from other sources. We have seen a good many 
people enthusiastic over something that was new to them, though it was 
not a novelty. 

We believe that nearly all vegetables or flowers can be developed along 
certain natural lines purely by process of selection—we mean that they can 
be made early or late, large or small by this method. 

Crossing and hybridizing is very slow and discouraging work. We have 
never done very much of it in vegetables except to try it in Salsify. We 
have tried it somewhat in Sunflowers, Hollyhocks and Centaureas, but 
without success so far. C. C. Morse & Co., 

Per Lester L. Morse, Pres. and Mgr. 


The most noteworthy hybrid I have raised is the Canna Mrs. Kate Gray, 
This canna was raised at Alhambra in the summer of 1896. Italia was 
the seed-bearing parent crossed with the pollen from Madam Crozy, the 
pollen from the leaf stamen being used. One seed was obtained, and since 
that time neither Italia nor Mrs. Kate Gray can be induced with me to perfect 
seed. 


CALIFORNIA PLANT BREEDING. 241 


I have a very good hybrid Asparagus which is the result of a cross 
between Asparagus decumbens, seed-bearing, and pollen from Asparagus 
tenuissimus. 

Some seedling Roses which have flowered giving great promise of 200d 
varieties are American Beauty crossed with Kaiserin Augusta Victoria and 
Papa Gontier crossed with American Beauty. 

Pollen grains vary in size and vitality, though they may have been grown 
in the same stamen. In fact, I am selecting my pollen grains. Method 
used: A piece of unglazed paper is used, shaking the ripe pollen onto it and 
curving the paper, and at the same time elevating one end so that the pollen - 
runs down onto a plate. On looking at the pollen with a lens we find that 
a certain amount of inferior grains are left on the paper, and by repeating 
the operation only the heaviest grains reach the plate. From experience I 
have found that these selected grains carry with them the general make-up 
of the plant bearing them, unless the energy of the stigma overpowers the 
pollen life. If such is the case the progeny is intermediate between the 
two in all points. But if the vigor of the pollen predominates it carries with 
it all the characteristic traits of its parent except color, which invariably 
leans to the seed-bearing parent. Mixed pollens from differently colored 
flowers produced all flaked flowers in Gladiolus. But one grain of pollen 
froma red-flowered Gladiolus on a light salmon-colored one produced a 
most beautiful pink. The few remaining seed gave results inferior to both 
parents. 

Moisture is fatal to pollen and weakens the vigor of the stigma. It is 
owing to the dry air of California that California seeds have such sound 
germinating powers. 

All plant life deteriorates, and it is only by crossing variety on variety 
that we stay this law of nature. In fact, such is the tendency of some varie- 
ties to hold to their original that when crossed with pollen from another 
variety it only adds vigor to the tree or plant. ; 

I have a noticeable instance of this in a hybrid Orange tree. The tree 
is the result of a cross between the Navel Orange and the Mediterranean 
Sweet, the former being the seed-bearer. As far as I can see the fruits are 
perfect Navels in every way. W. H. Morse. 


I have originated five varieties of loquat, which I consider of sufficient 
value to offer to the public. They are: 

Advance, which is very large, sometimes three inches in length; pear 
shaped; yellow skin; white flesh, and grows often in immense clusters. Ripe 
rather late in April and May. 

Blush, much like the Advance, but somewhat earlier; does not grow in 
such large clusters; is the least affected of any by the blight, being virtually 
immune. 

Premier; very large; oval; salmon skin and flesh; very early, ripening in 
March and April, or even before. 

Pineapple; a quiet, large, round, white-skinned, white-fleshed loquat of 
wonderfully rich flavor; grows in very large clusters; ripens with the Advance. 

Commercial; exceedingly large; pear shaped; skin, yellow; flesh, white; 
fruited for the first time in 1900. A very fine loquat, indeed. 

The Advance has been recognized as of especial value for abottt fourteen 
years. Most of the others are seedlings from it and are of comparatively 
recent introduction. Up to a quite recent date, my method has been simply 
to fruit selected seedlings, but now I have some young trees one and two years 
old, from pits which were hand fertilized, and whose origin is certain. I have 
fruited over twelve hundred seedlings and have about as many more which 
will bear in the next two years. 

Owing mainly to the introduction of the Advance, the loquat has become 
very popular in Los Angeles. One man, the past season, sold in that market 


242 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 


one thousand dollars worth of fruit from less than one hundred and fifty trees. 
There is no reason why the loquat should not become equally popular in the 
other large cities. C. P. Tarr, Orange: Cake 


I have kept no memoranda, and am unable, in a number of instances, to 
give the parentage or pedigree of novelties which I have introduced. I have 
done a great deal of work with Cosmos, but only through selection. Nastur- 
luuums have taken much of my time the last few years. One not yet given to 
the public, a cross of Phoebe by Sunlight, is very beautiful and most valuable 
for hybridizing; through it, I expect to develop a tall fringed Nasturtium. 
The work to which I am most devoted and where I hope to do my best is with 
Begonias. Considerable time has also been given to Geraniums and 
Chrysanthemums. TuHeEoposta B. SHEPARD, Ventura, Cal. 


_ 


A STUDY OF GRAPE POLLEN AND WHAT THE 
RESULTS INDICATE 


By N. O. Booth, State Experiment Station, Geneva, N. Y. 


The following investigations were carried on in the summer of 1902. 
Their object was to determine, if possible, the reasons why certain varieties 
of grapes are self-sterile. It was long supposed that self-fertility in a grape 
merely meant that the pollen of that variety could not fertilize its own pistil 
and the earlier students of the botany of the grape taught that such varieties 
would be told by the recurved stamens which were always supposed to go 
with self-sterility.. Later investigations, which showed that certain of the 
self-sterile varieties have long stamens,’ indicated that the recurving of the 
stamens was not the cause nor even a character which always accompanied 
self-sterility. Leaving out of consideration the recurving of the stamens as 
a mechanical cause preventing pollen of a grape blossom from falling on its 
own pistil and we have four other possible causes remaining: (1) What is 
known to botanists as dichogamy or the pistil and pollen from the same 
blossoms, and usually same plant, maturing at different periods; (2) lack 
of affinity between pollen and pistil of the same plant; (3) the pollen on 
the self-sterile sorts might be so scanty as to render fertilization improb- 
able; (4) lack of viability in the pollen itself, making it impotent not only 
on its own pistil, but also on all others. For reasons which will be discussed 
in the latter part of this paper it was considered that the first and second 
of these possible causes were not probable ones and our efforts were con- 
fined wholly to investigating the third and fourth causes. This year observa- 
tions were made on a great many different varieties as to the amount of 
pollen present. All of these estimates were, of course, approximate, since 
pollen is a material which it is impossible to measure exactly. These observa- 
tions were made both with naked eye and simple lens. There were a great 
many variations, but the variations did not appear to be particularly signifi- 
cant. There were greater variations on different clusters of the same vine 
than normally appeared on different vines of different varieties. The last 
clusters of flowers to bloom, and sometimes the first, are usually not so well 
supplied with pollen as those which appear at the height of the blossoming 
season. Vines just coming into bearing and having only one or two clusters 
on the vine were usually scantily supplied with pollen. With some of the 
varieties even where there was no apparent cattse in the condition of the 
vine, the amount of pollen present was apparently insufficient to make pollina- 
ition at all certain. However, with most of the self-sterile varieties the 
pollen was quite plentiful and apparently quite sufhcient for pollinating pur- 


1Englemann, Bushberg Catalogue, page 7, ed. 1899. 
2Beach. Bul. 157, N. Y. E. S. 


244 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 


poses. At the same time that these observations were being made the pollen 
itself was being studied to determine, if possible, the exact status of the 
pollen itself as a factor bearing on fertilization. This part of the work was 
wholly of a laboratory and microscopic nature, the only portion which took 
place in the field being the gathering of the blossoms. For this purpose the 
following list of varieties was selected for examination and comparison: 


PERCENTAGE SELF-FERTILE VARIETIES. PERCENTAGE SELF-STERILE VARIETIES. 
No. No. 
Ripatiaw. oO of C@levener jaocc i sys ssnele aisle *4," Ripit.-c.. 6 Clinton: | si. c eee 2 
Rap see icies Sno) Marton: (aca csyceicier eis Bee IN esoear <2 ‘Janesville. <:\:,.\j<eemerme 1 
Raipisen ses = x ESe Wivibachtes ccrocute cree acetate 4 Ripsscees <..3)- Berckmans~..cse ane 1 
eabruscas cane OAtiiintae sete eyes ea ccsere recs 4 Labs. i 4 Agawam (2:2 oceans 2 
Rip acres < 45) Grein) (Golden) \o,.crciee. 01s 4 Rapiere ovens x 5 Mo: Reisling.Jen--eeeee 2 
tel noose KORG wr Baliye city anrocica sais 4 bab... 2.08 6) Rogers” NO.Nae seers 2 
Lab.. 2 WWM eA arehcrerenets tera 4A Labscc.0G 1 Eucilles |: oo -esiecreeeeee 1 
abaerey tere SONS slacks arlesancice seme tA eeaDae year <8) Eniumph) a5. aso 2 
Labs: <3. <0) dMassasoity secrete ale 4 Wades X39: (Brilliant. “2 -ceeneeeeeeere 2 
Lab. . Ke ADP RGSCOED Aesth eikeistetoxe 4 Labieoe. X10) Eindmar S5..26eeeeeeiee 2 
Pte acer dl, Hexamer j56.)5 26. <.00% Velie By slaterenecete x V1. “Batley™ <2 .sieatoseeteare % 


*For the significance of these numbers following the names see Bul. 157, N. Y. E. S. 


Here we have a comparison in each instance of two varieties blooming 
at the same time or nearly the same time with similar parentage, but one 
variety being self-sterile and the other self-fertile, the object being to elim- 
inate so far as possible all differences which might be due to species or strain. 
This investigation naturally divided itself into two lines; first, trial of the 
pollen in sugar solution to see if it would germinate; second, examination of 
the pollen under a microscope to see if there were any constant morphological 
differences between that of the self-sterile and self-fertile varieties. In the 
beginning of this work we were handicapped by a lack of experience in 
growing grape pollen and a consequent lack of knowledge as to the best 
solutions in which to grow it, the literature of this subject being not readily 
accessible. On this account the results from the first four kinds of pollen 
tested were uncertain. This was due to using a sugar solution which was 
too weak for this kind of pollen to make a good growth (1 per cent.). The 
only differences shown in this pollen was in the budding’ as none germinated. 
The Clinton and Janesville both showed buds on from 5 to 10 per cent. of 
the grains, but the Clevener and Marion showed at the end of four days 
no change from their condition at time when placed in solution. On June 
18, 1902, pollen of Elvibach, Berckmans, Aminia and Agawam were placed 
in hanging drops of 2% per cent. sugar solution. They were examined for 
three successive days thereafter, and the number of germinations noted. The 
Elvibach and Aminia pollen did not germinate or even bud. About 4 per 
cent. of the Berckmans germinated and about 10 per cent of the Agawam. 
On the twenty-first pollen was prepared as before except for using a 5 per 
cent. solution of dextrose in place of the previous medium. The varieties 
from which pollen was taken in this instance were Grein Golden, Mo. Reisling, 
Barry, Rogers’ No. 32, Wyoming and Lucile. Notes were taken on these 
cultures on the 23d, at which time they were in the height of their growth, 
none germinating after that date. At this time the pollen of the Grein Golden, 


1The first stage in pollen germination, 


_ aan 


STUDY OF GRAPE POLLEN. 245 


Barry and Wyoming had not changed in any way from their condition 
when they were first placed in the solution. About 12 per cent. of the 
Mo. Reisling germinated 20 per cent. of Rogers’ No. 32 and 10 per cent. of 
the Lucile. Pollen of these same varieties was placed at this later date in 
10 per cent. dextrose solution with the following results: Grein Golden out 
of an estimated 200 grains one made a very weak growth. Barry and Wyo- 


‘ ming not changed in any way. Mo. Reisling, about 15 per cent. germinated. 


Rogers’ No. 32, about 50 per cent. and especially strong. Lucile was acci- 
dentally destroyed. The same varieties were tried in 10 per cent. sugar 
solution with the following details: Grein Golden, out of an estimated 150 
grains one germinated, growth short and weak. Mo. Reisling, 20 per cent. 
grew. Barry, none. Rogers’ No. 32, about 75 per cent. good and strong. 
Lucile is a mass of growth at least 80 per cent. In 20 per cent. sugar, Grein 
Golden shows 2 in approximately 250. Mo. Reisling, 25 per cent. Barry, 
none. Rogers’ No. 32, 90 per cent. Wyoming, about 5 per cent., growth 
weak. Lucile, 95 per cent. 

On July 2 cultures were made in 20 per cent. sugar solution with pollen 
of Black Eagle, Triumph, Massasoit, Brilliant, Roscoe, Lindmar, Hexamer 
and Bailey. Notes taken the following day show: Black Eagle, none budded 
or grown. Triumph, practically all budded but only about 10 per cent. grown 
to any length. Massasoit, little budding and no growth. Brilliant, all budded, 
60 per cent. grown. Roscoe, none budded and none grown. Lindmar, about 
60 per cent. budded and 10 per cent. grown. Hexamer, no buds and no 
growth. Bailey, about 60 per cent. budded and 5 per cent grown. The 
foregoing results are tabulated below: 


he — Dem rol 
onUvUsh = (st °o 
ar Sb Si es vv roaea) rate 
iO ln Poet ot oer ano) Soa SEG 
os 4 aDBOG, Fu BE Qs Ee 
oo meters tyes Cte gy ra oe Pat ts 
Ee Popes gen! Se ees bos 
eae Ss Ss 38 2G 
Za OmBseee ABS Ag nS aS 
BULVADACHE aire fo) ns01~ 2 4 Sterile June 18 June 19 216% sugar None 
Berckmans .....0-. 0. - Fertile ee ss SE 4% 
PRATIADIIAS Wicks oaistohai ci aia s 4 Sterile * nS ie t None 
Grein Golden........ 4: Sterile June 21 June 23 20% sugar 10% 
PESAW AIG a ceis ss oe 2 © 2 Fertile a y fs fe 1% weak 
Mo. Reisling........ 2 Fertile 2 ss iy By 25% 
iseieny i Shomelcebeces 4 Sterile se *s 5 None 
Rogers, NO. 32: os: < 2 Fertile . 5 ic sf ne 90% 
NV iy OMNES 55 'a5 27-1012) 4 Sterile ik * 4 * 5% 
SIGUE eos icieie sesiie eo aves 2 Fertile os $5 ce : 95%, very strong 
Bidck Basie)....-.4- 42 Sternle ~ July 3 July 5 7 = None 
Mrinal 21 «inci =i « 2 Fertile 5 ie a om 10% 
Massasoit .......... 4 Sterile a so ¥i Sf None 
Brean oo chec.3 fsveeve 2 Fertile = ss <s #3 60% 
Roscoe eae ae Sterile oy ef me a None 
Paigdmac. 2. ace <= 2 Fertile ne C2 = < 10% 
examen. <)5\-(icie( + .s:<.> 4 Sterile os om s om None 
Batley. ....<.: 2 Fertile ae ve 2 ee 5% 


*Sée Bul. 157, N. Y. Ex. Str. 
Besides these there were some other differences between the self-strile’ 


and the self-fertile pollen which seemed to be constant. The self-fertile 
grains seem to be surrounded by a mucilaginous substance which makes 


1] retain the use of these terms self-sterile and self-fertile all through this bul- 
letin, although the results show they do not express the whole truth. 


246 IIORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 


them stick to one another more or less so that the pollen, whether it lies dry 
on the slide or is placed in liquid media, arranges itself in a succession of 
clumps. This mucilaginous substance does not appear to be soluble in water 
as the pollen grains retain their position even after several days in the solu- 
tions. The self-sterile pollen, on the other hand, shows no such arrangement, 
but the grains distribute themselves either on the slide or in the liquid like so 
much dry powder, quite by chance. 

The next phase of the work was the microscopical examination of the 
pollen grains to see if there were any characteristic differences in the size 
or shape of the different classes of pollen. All pollen, whatever its shape 
may be when it comes from the anther, swells on contact with water and 
most other liquids, assuming a spherical shape. The results of this part of 
the work can be better illustrated than told. On the following pages are cuts 
which are reproduced from photo-micrographs of the pollen mounted in bal- 
sam. The characteristic differences are very apparent. The self-fertile forms 
are oblong, blunt at the ends and quite symmetrical. The self-sterile sorts 
as may be seen are quite different in shape, being more irregular and showing 
little of the symmetry of the other class. Pollen from all other varieties in 
the list previously given showed these same shapes according to the class 
to which the variety in question belonged, but the blooming season of the 
first eight varieties was past before I thought of illustrating this phase of 
the work, and later the balsam mounts of Roscoe and Lindmar were acci- 
dentally destroyed. 

Examination of pollen, from varieties of grapes which had given conflict- 
ing results in Prof. Beach’s work to determine if they were self-sterile, 
showed that these forms may be mixed. Eaton was the first one of these 
which was examined on June 26. The pollen of this variety is quite irregular 
in shape and size, and only about 10 per cent. show the regular self-fertile 
shape, although there are numerous others which approach it very closely. 
They are considerably larger than average pollen. In 20 per cent. sugar 
_solution about 15 per cent. of this pollen germinated. None of the growths 
appeared healthy, however, or at least were not like those of completely self- 
fertile pollen. In normal self-fertile pollen the tubes formed on germination 
are approximately the same size throughout, but the tubes of Eaton varied 
in size at different points of their course, being restricted at one place and 
swollen and distorted at another. The tubes were fully as long as those 
of normal self-fertile pollen. Other pollen of the same class which Prof. 
Beach brought for testing were Dracut, Amber, Maxatawney, Faith, Geneva, 
Montefiore, Caronicus, Oneida, Gold Dust and White Jewel. These were 
tested, as were also pollen of Red Traumener, Red Veltliner and Chables 
sent by Dr. Tinker, of New Philadelphia, Ohio. In each instance the per- 
centage of pollen which germinated did not vary widely from the percentage 
of self-fertile forms which the microscope showed that particular variety to 
contain. And it appears very certain that the capacity of the pollen for 
growth is in direct proportion to the percentage of self-fertile forms present 
and their conformity to the self-fertile type, Pollen of various varieties of 


_ 


STUDY OF GRAPE POLLEN. 247 


grapes varies considerably in size, but there is no apparent connection between 
the size and germinating capacity. 

From these results it appears that one of the reasons why certain varieties 
of grapes are self-sterile is a lack of viability or potency in the pollen itself." 
There may be other minor factors (quantity of pollen produced, etc.), but 
this is sufficient to account for all of the phenomena observed in the field. 
There are no distinct classes of self-fertile and self-sterile forms, but all 
gradations exist from one extreme (pseudostaminate) to the other (pseudo- 
pistillate). It further appears that pollen from the same variety may vary 
in different years and in the same year in different localities.” This gradua- 
tion of pollen is quite readily noticed on examining pollen from a dozen or 
two of varieties selected by chance. In selecting the varieties which are 
given in the list in this bulletin extreme types were purposely sought so that 
any differences which might exist would be most apparent. 

The grape is evidently, so far as its phenological characters are con- 
cerned, now in a state of evolution from an assumed older hermaphrodite® 
form to forms that are essentially staminate and pistillate. All of the stam- 
inate forms which I have observed have small abortive pistils which con- 
form with the observations of Engelmann. Others report staminate flowers 
with no trace of pistil remaining. On the other hand, the most advanced 
pistillate forms still retain their stamens and pollen although so far as their 
true function is concerned they are abortive. There is considerable cor- 
roborative evidence as to this being an incomplete evolution in the fact that 
the forms are not fixed and separate, but blend together and are quite un- 
stable even on the same plant." These facts seem to show that our grape 
is in a state of very unstable equilibrium coming from an ancestry of diverse 
sexual types.® 


It might be interesting to consider the probable cause of this evolution. 
It seems reasonable to suppose that there must be some advantage which the 
staminate and pistillate vines have over the older hermaphrodite forms or 
they would not have developed and persisted. This advantage probably lies 
in the fact that cross fertilization is thus assured." The seedlings resulting 
from cross fertilization being usually the stronger’ would have the better 
chance in the struggle for existence with those from vines which were self- 
fertilized. However, we should not lose sight of the fact that there are also 
some advantages to the hermaphrodite forms, and the chief one of these lies 
in the greater certainty of fertilization and consequent seed production. 
Where vines are widely scattered, the hermaphrodites would have the ad- 


"Such plants are well known to botanists, and are called pseudo-hermaphrodite. 
Kerner & Oliver: National History of Plants, 291. 

-2Beach.. Bul. 157. 

3Bailey. Survival of Unlike, 347, and Geddes & Thompson Evolution of Sex. 

4There is a vine at this Station which bears both -staminate and hermaphrodite 
flowers. Mr. N. B. White, Norwood, Mass., reports a male rip. X lab. vine on_ his 
ground which has fruited but twice in the last 30 years. See also Bushberg Catalogue, 8. 

5Kerner & Oliver, Natural History of Plants, 300. 

®Kerner & Oliver; J. c. 

7Darwin. Cross Fertilization of Plants, 


248 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 
vantage since the chances of cross-fertilization of staminate and pistillate 
forms under such circumstances would be remote. Where the conditions are 
such that vines are numerous and closely adjacent, the opposite would be the 
case, as fertilization of the pistillate flowers would be comparatively certain 
and the seedlings resulting would have the advantage over those resulting 
from self-fertilized hermaphrodites. It must be remembered that the ad- 
jacency referred to is not merely a matter of distance but would be modified 
more or less by other factors, such as number and kind of insects normally 
present, direction of wind, surrounding vegetation, etc. It must also be 
remembered that although pistillate flowers are necessarily cross-fertilized it 
does not follow that hermaphrodite flowers are self-fertilized. These may be 
cross-fertilized also either by other hermaphrodites or by staminates, and the 
pistallate forms may be pollinated by either the staminates or hermaphrodites. 
In any of these cases the resulting seedling, while it would possess the indi- 
vidual vigor due to crossing might be itself in any class so far as its pheno- 
logical characters are concerned. This mixing and the fact that the advan- 
tages of each class tend to a certain extent to balance each other probably 
account for it that neither form has supplanted the other but both are still 
present. In reference to the question referred to in the first part of this 
note as to whether dichogomy or the maturing of stamens and _ pistils 
on the same plant at different periods might exist in the grape, observations 
seem to show that this is not the case. The anthers usually burst and the 
pollen is liberated before the pistils become receptive, but a good portion of 
the pollen remains on the anther and is released gradually even some time 
after the pistils are in a condition to be fertilized. Grape pollen is notably 
resistant to the ordinary influences of decay’ and it can be readily seen how 
in an inconspicuously flowered plant like the grape, where insect visits might 
not be so numerous as would be desired for pollinating purposes, keeping 
qualities on the part of the pollen grains would be so valuable that they 
could not be sacrificed even for so important a consideration as cross-fer- 
tilization. The question as to whether there might not be a lack of affinity 
between the pollen of a self-fertile grape and its own pistil will be difficult 
to settle conclusively. What evidence we have seems to show that this does 
not exist.2 Trial of the pollen of self-sterile varieties on their own pistils 
and on the pistils of self-fertile varieties while subject to such accidents as 
are liable to occur in such delicate work as this* seem to show that the 
fault lies in the condition of the pollen and not in any relation which exists 
between the pollen and pistil. Furthermore, the fact that the phzenological 
evolution referred to ever took place is strong negative proof that lack of 
affinity does not exist. If any of the original hermaphrodite forms has 
possessed that quality by which pollen of a certain plant was impotent on the 
pistils of the same plant then there would have been no cause to produce the 


1Bul. 157, N. Y. Ex. Sta., 438. Pollen was germinated by the writer three weekg 
after it had been gathered. 

2Beach, S. A. Self-Fertility of the Grape. Investigations of 1900 and 1902. Bul. N. Y 
Exp. Sta. (in preparation). 

$Bul. 157, N. Y. Exp. Sta. 


STUDY OF GRAPE POLLEN. 249 


staminate and pistillate forms of to-day, since cross-fertilization would have 
already been assured. 

The economic bearing of these results is quite apparent. In choosing 
fertilizers for self-sterile grapes it will give us a means of selecting the best 
varieties for this purpose without the long vinyard trials by sacking, etc., 
which have heretofore been necessary. To the hybridist it may be of service 
and it provides a means of determining the sexual status of varieties within 
a ‘single blossoming season. 

SUMMARY. 

I—tThe self-sterility which is known to exist among many varieties of 
cultivated grapes is frequently, if not always, due to a lack of potency in the 
pollen. 

II.—This lack of potency is indicated in the pollen grains by a shape 
which is quite different from that of potent pollen. 

IlI.—It is also shown in the arrangement of the pollen either dry or in 
liquid media. 

IV.—Certain varieties of grapes bear pollen in which both the potent 
and impotent forms are mixed. Trial of this mixed pollen shows that the 
amount which germinates is approximately in proportion to the potent forms 
present. 


SOME HYBRID NICOTIANAS 


By Ph. de Vilmorin, Paris, France 


Although the culture of tobacco is strictly limited in France on account 
of the State monopoly, some species of Nicotiana and even the N. tabacum 
are grown for ornamental purposes. 

Amongst the more popular are Nicotiana sylvestris, N. affinis, and a 
deep red variety of N. tabacum, of the Maryland type, known under different 
names, none of which is good. We tried at Verrieres some crosses between 
these kinds with the object of improving their value as garden flowers, and 
the following is a brief account of the results: 

First Case: Nicotiana sylvestris and 1ed N. tabacum. The cross was 
made in 1899, and gave two types in 1900: 

A. Apparently pure sylvestris (dropped). 

B. Very distinct hybrid, having the general appearance and the 
foliage of Nicotiana tabacum, but branched stems, flowers pale red, 
distinctly longer than those of N. tabacum, very handsome plant giv- 
ing flowers in abundance during the whole summer. No seeds, except 
on a few late flowers. These seeds produced in 1901: 

(a)19 out of 20 plants of pure sylvestris (although from 
seeds of a red flowered hybrid), the seeds of which gave again 

pure sylvestris in 1902. 

(b) Only one plant different from the type by its foliage 

smaller and longer, dull green, its flowers 6 centimeters long (10 

em. in N. sylvestris) and horizontal (drooping in N. sylvestris) 

That plant gave seeds and 

(bb) in 1901 was the origin of a very striking variation, 
namely: All the plants differ more or less from one another 
although they are all closely related to N. sylvestris. Some 
are taller than N. sylvestris; 4 of them are dwarfer (60 centi- 
meters to 1 m.); some having a bright green foliage, some a 
dull green; and great differences in the shape and size of the 
foliage. 

These 3d generation hybrids have nothing left of the N. tabacum as far 
as regards the color of flowers. The only proof of their hybrid origin is 
in the variation in the size of the plants, size, form and color of leaves, and 
more or less drooping disposition of the flowers. 

Seconp Case: The same cross (N. sylvestris and N. tabacum) was made 
again in 1901 with the same result in the first generation, but there were no 
pure sylvestris amongst the seedlings, and the flowers were somewhat paler, 


252 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 


the N. tabacum (taller) being paler than that used in 1899. Will probably give 
seeds. 

In both cases (1 and 2) the first generation hybrid of N. sylvestris and 
N. tabacum was a very beautiful and decorative plant. The length of flower 
stalk and abundance of flowers was increased by the fact that the flowers 
were sterile or nearly so. 


Tuirp Case: I wish to report a third case of the same hybridization, 
made in 1900 by a very careful observer, Mr. Bellair, head gardener of the 
public gardens of Versailles, which is exceedingly interesting, not only in 
itself, but also because it differs from what happened at Verrieres in case 
1, and is a proof of the extraordinary diversity in the results of hybridization. 

The N. sylvestris and N. tabacum gave in 1901 a number of seedlings, 
much like one another and also very like one we have at Verrieres. Mr. 
Bellair used them for decoration in the Pare de Versailles, and wrote an 
article about them in the Revue Horticole, of December Ist, 1901. At that 
time he stated that the plants were sterile except a few of them which were 
very like N. sylvestris (same thing occurred at Verrieres). Nevertheless he 
could find a few good seeds on the distinct hybrids and got a number of new 
forms, none of them being like either parent, but all intermediate and gen- 
erally smaller than either. Mr. Bellair sends me the descriptions of four forms. 


A. Dwarf plant, 90 cm. to 1 m. high, flowers horizontal, 10 cm. 
long, 42-45 mm. broad, foliage dull green, somewhat like that of 
Nicotiana virginica. 

B. Plant 1 m. 25 high, very stiff, leaves small, flowers looking 
upwards, about 6 m. long and 3 m. broad. 

C. Plant interesting from the lengths of the flowers (14 cm. 
instead of 10 cm. in N. sylvestris) which are, however, not very 
broad. Some of the leaves are long, narrow and drooping, whilst the 
others have normal proportions. 

D. Plant 1 m. 40 high, very like N. tabacum, but flowers broader, 
and of pale rose that by and by becomes almost white. 

These four types, says Mr. Bellair, were selected from the bed when 
still mere seedlings, because they already showed characters distinct from the 
lot, and they were planted in the garden. 


It was, however, among the plants left in pots that Mr. Bellair was fortu- 
nate enough to find a few rose N. sylvestris, that is plants almost like N. 
sylvestris, with flowers only a little shorter and of rose color. 

It is interesting to notice that the plants here described are second gen- 
eration hybrids, when it is quite expected to find the phenomenon of ‘“‘vari- 
ation desordonné,” as it was called by Naudin. The forms A, B, and C are 
exceedingly like the ones we got at Verrieres from the same cross but only 
in the third generation. Besides, Mr. Bellair was fortunate enough to get 
plants with colored flowers, which was not our luck. (See case 1.) 

Fourtu Case: WN. tabacum and N. sylvestris. This cross had been tried 
in 1900 by Mr. Daveau, head gardener in the botanical garden at Montpelier. 
The hybrid is described in the Revue Horticole, December Ist, 1901, it is a 
beautiful plant forming thick bouquets of flowers and absolutely sterile. The 


HYBRID NICOTIANAS. 253 


gatne cross was made at Verrieres, in 1901, and I can report only the results 
of the first generation, which are very different from Mr. Daveau’s hybrid: 
Plants very strong and high (2 m. 50), general appearance of some of the 
varieties of N. tabacum used for tobacco making, flowers with a long tube 
(6 cm.) small and pointed petals, pale rose, forming a loose panicle; the 
flowers and are thus intermediate between those of the N. sylvestris and N. 
tabacum. Seems to give seeds. 


Firru Case: N. tabacum (very deep red variety) and N. affints. Cross 
made in 1899, gave a plant very like N. affinis in general bearing and shape 
of flowers, but dwarfer and not so strong. The flowers are smaller and a 
little shorter, sometimes (on the same plant) pure white, sometimes rose on 
the outside and white inside, sometimes rose or varigated in the inside. This 
very interesting hybrid is unfortunately absolutely sterile; all attempts at 
self-fertilizing or crossing with other varieties or species were complete fail- 
ures. Since 1900 it has been propagated by root cuttings. 


Sixty Case: Nicotiana glauca and N. tabacum. Cross made in 1901. 
In 1902 gave two forms: 


A. 11 plants (out of 12), quite like one another, tall (2 m.), 
branched, leaves oval; flowers small, greenish yellow whem young 
and afterwards rose; these plants are evident hybrids. More closely 
related to N. tabacum than to N. glauca. 

B. The twelfth plant quite distinct, 80 cm. high, flowers very 
short, petals rounded, yellowish green, seeds abundant. That plant 
is different from the eleven others resulting from the same cress and 
also from both parents, which fact it is very difficult to account for, 
especially in the first generation. 


This last hybridization was made solely as an experiment, there being 
no chance of improving N. tabacum by a cross with N. glauca. 


CONCLUSIONS. 


(1) In all cases first generations have been very infertile, giving only 
a few seeds from late flowers, except in case 5 where the hybrid is completely 
sterile and in the form B of case 6 where the hybrid is very fertile. 

(2) In some cases the plants of the first generation are intermediate be- 
tween the parents and entirely like one another except in case | wherein was 
noticed a slight retrogression towards the mother and again in case 6 wherein 
the form B is very distinct from both parents. 

(3) The first generation hybrids were more closely related to the 
mother than to the father in case 4 and the reverse in cases 1, 2, 3, 5 and 6, 
but in cases 1 and 2, where the second and third generations were observed 
there is a distinct retrogression towards the mother. 

(4) Generally the hybrids are neither so tall nor so strong as their 
parents, but, because of their sterility, have a splendid and long enduring 
inflorescence. 

I acknowledge that these conclusions are vague and unsatisfactory, but 
I must be content with them for the present. I hope that further experiments 
may help to a true knowledge of the transmission of characters in hybrids. 


_EVER-BEARING STRAWBERRIES 


By P. de Vilmorin, Paris, France 


I have very little to add to the history of everbearing strawberries as 
it was published by my father in 1898 (Journal of Royal Horticultural So- 
ciety) beyond what has since been done at Verrieres in the way of improving 
the varieties described. 

Within the last few years the St. Joseph and especially the St. Antoine 
de Padoue strawberries have proved to be very good and prolific plants. 
Wherever the water supply is sufficient to keep them growing they gave all 
through the summer and as late as October a great crop of large, well- 
flavored fruits, fetching high prices when sent to the market. Nevertheless 
the size of the late fruits cannot be compared with that of some of the big 
June strawberries, and our object has been to increase that size. 

Crosses were made in 1897 by my father between St. Joseph and different 
varieties of the large-fruited strawberry. Almost all of them resulted in 
the production of more or less everbearing plants. One with Edouard Leport 
proved to be specially good; it had large fruits and was propagated for dis- 
tribution. 

In 1898 more crosses were tried with St. Joseph and the result was the 
same. One seedling (St. Joseph X Noble) much better than the others, with 
very large and well-shaped fruits, will very likely become a good garden 
variety. 

Among the curious remarks afforded by the study of the hybrid straw- 
berries one is especially striking and shows well how difficult it is to foresee 
the result of a hybridization. A cross made in 1898 between St. Joseph and 
Louis Gauthier—two everbearing varieties—gave birth to a plant that was 
not everbearing. 

In 1899, 1900 and 1901 we worked on the same lines as before, only using 
St. Antoine de Padoue instead of St. Joseph. Many seedlings are under 
observation now and give good hopes for the future. 

It is perhaps not useless to remark that all these large-fruited ever- 
bearing strawberries give bigger and nicer fruits on the preceding year’s 
runner than on the older plants, the latter being generally exhausted by their 
abnormal production. 

In order to increase the strength of the large-fruited varieties and their 
resistance to fungi my father had the happy thought of crossing them with the 
Fragaria sandwicensis, a very healthy and vigorous species. A cross made twe 
years ago between St. Joseph X F. sandwicensis gave a plant as strong as its 
father, with dark green leaves; the mother contributed the everbearing 
character and the flavor to the plant. 

I am in hopes that this may mark the beginning of a new era in strawberry 
breeding. 


SOME POSSIBILITIES 


ByiG. ‘Allen; Floral Park, Long Island, N. Y. 


Plant breeding is usually regarded as the act of reproduction, the per- 
petuation of a given species, or type, that each plant acts as a machine acts 
without volition, producing, because it was made to produce, wherever placed 
in the order of creation, and that variation, in form or character, was the 
result of external circumstances being more or less favorable to the develop- 
ment of the machine as regards strength and recuperative energy, which, is in 
a great measure, true, but not the whole truth, as we shall endeavor to show. 

To us, plant breeding has a much broader significance; it is education— 
the giving of character to—the bringing of the plant up to the highest possi- 
bilities of its creation, which are, to a great extent, bounded by the opportuni- 
ties afforded it. 

To fully understand the plant’s capabilities for development it will be 
necessary to first study them in their native habitat; to do that it will be 
necessary to first take a glance at their geographical distribution, then note the 
variation in form, substance and habit incident upon a changed condition of 
climate, as well as in the character of soil when removed to distant localities. 

Buffon, in speaking of the geographical distribution of plants, says: “The 
vegetation which covers the earth, and which is still more attached to it than 
the animals which browse it, are €ven more interested than they in the nature 
of climate.” Each country, each changing degree of temperature, has its par- 
ticular plants. We find at the foot of the Alps the plants of France and Italy; 
at their summit we find the plants of the frozen North, and the same Northern 
plants we find again at the summit of the mountains of Africa. Upon the 
range of the hills which separates the Mogul Empire from the Kingdom of 
Cashmere, we find on the southern slope many of the plants of the Indies, and 
it is not without surprise that we find on the north flanks many of those of 
Europe. It is also from the extremes of climate that we draw our drugs, 
perfumes and poisons, and all the plants whose properties are in excess. 
Temperate climates, on the contrary, only produce temperate things; the 
mildest of herbs, the most wholesome of legumes, the most refreshing of fruits, 
the quietest of animals, the most polished of men, are the heritage of the 
mildest climates. 

In the natural distribution of plants, temperature was the principle that 
governed selection; it might be more proper to say that each was created for 
the place it was to occupy, but with the power of adaptation to changed condi- 
tions of soil and climate, to a considerable extent. 


258 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 


As a principle, plant breeding is plant education, or plant development, in 
the order of evolution. 

While we can readily understand the plant’s changes in form or substance, 
through climatic influences, they are frequently so marked in their essential 
character, that no one can understand these variations unless they are the 
results of the plant’s own volition. 

Upon general principles, it is safe to assert that plant breeding is simply 
giving a plant an opportunity to develop its latent forces, in obedience to the 
command to grow. A plant in its native habitat, is an undeveloped, uneducated 
object in the realm of nature, and has its analogy in the wild man of the wood, 
from which it differs only in degree. In its native state, the plant’s only 
mission is reproduction, its whole energy is along those lines. The develop- 
ment of its functions, or active principle that gives it a place in the economy of 
nature, whether it be for food, raiment, or medicine, or for its uses in the 
mechanic arts, is left until such times as these productions become indispensable 
to other creations. 

As a fitting illustration of this principle, we will take the banana, Musa 
paradisica, the fruit of which is highly nutritious and is credited with sustain- 
ing a larger number of the human race than any one of the cereals. Though 
less nutritious than wheat or potatoes, yet the space occupied by their culture, 
and the care required are so very much less that Humboldt has calculated the 
produce of bananas compared with that of wheat as 133 to 1, and to that of 
potatoes as 44 to 1. 

In its native habitat, the fruit is filled with small, black, shining seeds, 
which, like all other seeds, exhaust the plant’s vital energies, far more than the 
fruit we eat. 

Under cultivation, the banana rarely ever produces seeds, and reproduction 
is effected by suckers, or more properly, off-sets, and the energy required to 
produce seed is applied to the production of fruit, in remuneration for services 
rendered in the reproduction of the plant. An individual plant of the banana 
produces but one crop of fruit. As soon as this is gathered, the stem im- 
mediately begins to decay, and is removed, and the numerous off-sets from 
the base of the plant are separated and planted out in new fields, and, in a few 
months will produce a crop of fruit, which keeps up a continuous harvest. 

The orange is another striking illustration of the plant’s adaptation to 
man’s use. In the direct line of evolution, it ceased, but a few years ago, in 
one of the districts of Brazil, where this fruit is found growing to the greatest 
perfection, to produce seed, instead of which, the whole energy of the tree was 
employed in producing fruit, nature, seemingly, confident that the perpetuation 
of the species was safe in the hands of those who were to profit by the fruit 
produced. The result was that a much larger crop was obtained from each 
tree, and of superior quality, as well as increased size. 

The seedless orange, as now grown in California, is not only the largest, 
but the most delicious fruit of its kind that comes to our market. No horticul 
turist can claim the honor of originating the seedless orange, no one had the 
least idea of such a possibility. 

The potato, where grown to the greatest perfection, rarely produces seed, 


SQME POSSIBILITIES. 259 


other than through the agency of artificial fertilization. Nature, working 
along the lines of that rigid economy that marks her every action, has thrown 
the energy required for the production of seed, into the development of the 
tubers, which are furnished with buds for the perpetuation of a given typé 
which the seed could not do. 


So far as we know, nature never did produce a vegetable fit for developed 
man to eat, but in every class there were the possibilities of the greatest use- 
fulness, when, or where, their uses were required. To reproduce is nature’s 
work; to develop or educate was a duty imposed on man. 


In the climate of Sweden, where there are but nine weeks of spring, sum- 
mer and autumn, the active principle of growth is so intense during that short 
period that their meadows yield two crops of the most nutritious grass, and 
their gardens two crops of the most delicate and delicious vegetables. Do not 
understand me to say that they can take seeds grown in a more southerly 
clime and get such results, at first; they cannot, but by slow stages the plants 
have become adapted to localities where rapid growth is required, until the 
results are as stated. 


On the contrary, seeds grown in Denmark will, if planted in a more 
southern locality, make for a season a much more rapid growth, but a second 
or third generation will take the full time allowance for reproduction. 

Many plants which are annual and herbaceous in temperate climates, 
become perennial and ligneous in the tropics, and the reverse, a fact that is 
the cause of some strange freaks in plant variation. Take as an example, the 
common castor oil plant, which is here grown as an annual, and now produces 
its seed freely; when first introduced, it was a tall growing plant, and rarely 
ripened but the fruit of its first flowers. By saving the seed for a few gener- 
ations, it adapted itself to the climate, became more dwarf in habit, its seeds 
grew smaller, and the plant is now extensively grown for commercial purposes. 
The same species in Africa grows to an immense size, and is perennial in habit, 
while its trunk is as woody as most of the forest trees. 

A better illustration, from the fact of its being one in which we are more 
interested, may be found in the lima bean (Phaseolus lunatus). In South 
America, where it is indigenous, it is a tender herbaceous perennial, a most 
rampant grower, and, having fully nine months to perfect its fruit, it can 
ramble at leisure without fear of frost. When spring time comes, as it does 
everywhere, from the crown of its immense fleshy tubers, not unlike the 
Chinese yam, som eof which weigh fully fifty pounds each, there shoot forth 
numerous tender stems, not unlike the perennial ITpomoeas, which make a 
rapid growth, and, twining over other vegetable forms, becomes an impene- 
trable mass. 

Like most other twining plants, it follows the sun in its course, which is 
there from right to left, directly opposite from the natural direction of twining 
plants north of the equator, which accounts for the difficulty experienced here 
in getting them to climb the poles. Habit says, go to the left, the sun says, 
follow me and go to the right, the result is it will not willingly do either. 

The farther removed from its southern home, the more rapid its growth 
and the more dwarf its habit, until it reaches the limit of growth or time it has 


260 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 


for growth sufficient for reproduction. By slow stages, in its adaptation to 
changed conditions, it has assumed a dwarf, bushy habit, instead of a climbing 
plant, as we find it where indigenous. 

The question—What is the cause of this change in habit, where and how 
did the bush limas originate, is readily understood to be in the direct line of 
evolution. 

There is not, neither has there been, a greater change in the habits of 
growth of the lima bean than in the quality of the seed produced as an article 
of food. The large, flat lima grown at the South is far more delicious and ten- 
der than that grown at the farthest point North where the same can be pro- 
duuced. The beans brought from Lima would not reproduce themselves if 
planted in the Northern and Eastern States, and our valued productions are 
the results of gradual removals from South to North by slow stages. 


THE SCARLET RUNNER. 

What is true in regard to the lima bean is equally true with the scarlet 
runner, and allied species, also a native of South America and perennial in 
habit. Here it is grown as an annual, but few, relatively, know it to be other- 
wise. We are well acquainted with a plant which has been growing in a border 
from a seed planted ten years ago. This plant is close to 2 wall on the south 
side of the house, which is kept so warm by the furnace in the cellar that no 
frost ever enters the border. It throws up a large number of shoots annually 
and produces its flowers and seeds in great profusion. We examined its under- 
ground stem, or tuber, last spring and found it as large as a mangel wurzel. 
It is but correct to say that each one of the stems is not as prolific as a single 
stem when grown as an annual. 

CORN: 


There are but few of our useful plants so greatly changed by a change of 
locality as the different varieties of field corn. Not only is this the case as to 
the period of time the crop takes to mature, but to the essential character of 
the grain when grown under changed conditions of soil and climate. Corn 
has been, and is being, grown to a profit, where there is rarely a month in the 
year without a frost. I have seen it growing in the province of Quebec, where 
such climatic conditions existed. The stalks did not exceed more than four 
feet in height and of proportionate diameter, yet nearly all of them produced 
each two small ears of sound yellow corn, of most excellent quality. 

Some of this corn was taken to Central New York and given every 
attention necessary for the production of a crop, and never did plants respond 
more freely to good treatment. The growth was no larger than the same 
made in Quebec, and the harvest was made in about the same number of days 
after planting the crop, being harvested before the middle of August. 

The seed product was all used for planting the following season, but, hav- 
ing found that in the climate of its adopted home, it had twice as long a time 
to mature, it took it all and grew as high and strong as the yellow flint corn 
there generally grown, and produced as large ears. Its identity as an early 
type or variety was lost, but the lesson taught was instructive and valuable, 
showing how readily the plant adapted itself to the conditions as found and 
how readily all plants accept the situation given them. 


SOME POSSIBILITIES. 261 


SWEET PEAS. 

In its native habitat, the sweet pea is the tallest grower of the numerous 
genus of Lathyrus, and, where growth is slow, and climate moist, its period 
of flowering is much longer than where the seasons are short and the atmo- 
sphere rare with high temperature. But the law of reproduction is always 
understood and respected, and in obedience to command, it adapts itself to 
whatever situation in which it may be placed. 

In the short seasons of Northern New York, and in the heavy clay soil, 
with seasons of heat and drought, in order to produce the required number of 
seeds, growth had to be curtailed, and the season of flowering made shorter; 
the result was that all its flowers were produced nearly at the same time, 
which makes the plant far more effective and useful as a florist’s flower. This 
is shown in the Blanche Ferry and the dwarf varieties, now becoming common, 
to be the result of the plant’s adaptation to its environments. 

CABBAGE. 

The cabbage in cold climates adds an zdditional number of leaves to its 
heart, and the colder the climate the greater the number, and the more compact 
their arrangement. While nature is protecting her own, she at the same time 
provides for other creations, worthy objects of her care. 

Seed grown here, if taken to a warmer climate, in one generation produces 
soft heads, simply because greater protection is unnecessary for purposes of 


reproduction. 
RUTA BAGA. 


The same is true of the ruta baga. In climates where the roots can be 
left in the field, they invariably preduce large, long necks, which are thickly set 
with buds that will in due time develop the stalks and branches that yield the 
seed. On Long Island, N. Y., the tendency of the root is to grow globular in 
shape, and with a little care in selection will become nearly a perfect globe. 
There is a type that does not show a particle of neck, and when taken up upon 
the approach of winter, nearly every leaf drops off, so there is no necessity for 
cutting the tops before trenching. This feature is more noticeable when they 
are grown in light, sandy soil. 

These changes, constantly going on, have made in almost every genus of 
plants, many types so entirely different in form and habit, from the parent, as 
to constitute them distinct species. Certainly, the bush lima bean, of the 
potato type, and the large, flat variety of twining habi, if found indigenous in 
the same locality, would, by an¥ one with authority to define species, been 
given distinctive specific names. 

There are as many types of vegetables as latitudes in which they are 
grown, and these will be more or less modified by the character of tho soil in 
which they are grown. And it is not as arbitrary as we have been taught to 
suppose. 

Having shown that many, if not most, of the changes in vegetable forms 
have been made necessary for self-preservation, when growing under changed 
climatic conditions, and also that these changes were along the lines of evolu- 
tion, to enable them to live in harmony with other creations, we will now 
briefly consider, what is generally supposed the most important element in 
plant breeding or plant development, viz. : 


262 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 


HYBRIDIZATION. 


Much stress is laid on the importance of hybridization, as an order in the 
development of species and the parent of new varieties. While we are willing 
to credit any agency that gives us an improved vegetable form, no matter 
what it may be, it is possible to give to this more than is justly its due. 

When hybridization resulted in a mule, incapable of reproduction, we 
could only regard it the parent of monstrosities, which would render all such 
results, from the seedman’s standpoint, utterly useless, as any seedless plant 
would be to those whose business it is to sell seeds, but to-day we accept it as 
an important agency in the development of vegetable forms. 

But how are types developed through this agency? may be asked. We 
reply by simply uniting the good qualities of two or more vareities into one. 
As, for instance, a tree, shrub or plant may be vigorous in growth, and strong 
in reproductive energy, but its fruits may be low in those qualities that give it 
a commercial value. 

'An allied species or variety may have but little strength physically, but 
produce fruits, in limited quantity, that reach the highest degree of perfection. 
A union of the good qualities of the two is a most valuable acquisition. This 
is our work—our duty—as agents in plant breeding or plant education. 

When these imprisoned energies are set free by cross-fertilization, they 
are liable to impart to their progeny some very strange combinations, many 
erratic freaks, present themselves. These strange variations are apt to show 
themselves for several generations. This makes the work of selection a neces- 
sary one, which must be long continued, before a desired type becomes 
permanent. 

That we have secured a variety that will prove constant and reproduce 
these pronounced characteristics we so highly prize, when first they present 
themselves, is by no means certain. The most desirable varieties have been 
the result of a long series of careful selection freom stocks which showed a 
tendency to improve under favorable circumstances. 

Improvement along any line of reproduction is slow, and uncertain. Many 
of the varieties produced through the agency of cross-fertilization, while of 
great value in the locality where they originated, are, or may be without value 
elsewhere, as they do not always reproduce themselves when grown under 
changed conditions of soil and climate. They may come true to the type the 
first year, but will not reproduce it, from the fact of its not being congenial to 
its changed conditions. This is true with all leading varieties, and, while the 
seed of a given type will come true under nearly all conditions where the plant 
can be grown at all, yet it may not do to grow it for seed purposes. The seed 
growers all over the world fully understand these conditions, and get their 
stocks from localities where development, rather than deterioration, is the 
natural tendency. 

REPRODUCTION. 

It matters not when, how or where a given variety was produced; the 
question for the plant breeder is, where can it be reproduced to the best possi- 
ble advantage? In other words, where can he procure seeds that will give the 
greatest satisfaction in the locality he has to supply? 


SOME POSSIBILITIES. 263 

As all plants owe their existence, in the first place, to the seed, reproduc- 
tion depends wholly upon the seed’s power of germination. But germination 
in its relation to the value of the plant produced, is relative; all depends upon 
what the plant is grown for. A high power of germination is absolutely neces- 
sary in one case, while in another, a low percentage of germination is just as 
important. Weakness of vital power is highly important in many kinds of 
plants that are grown for the beauty of their flowers. Take, for instance, the 
Balsam and Zinnia; the weaker the vitality, the more care nature takes to pro- 
tect the germ that is to perpetuate the species. The flower is increased in size 
by an additional number of petals to protect the vital spark that is to per- 
petuate the species. 

It is an open secret that some of the truckers that grow cabbage largely 
for the New York market never use seed until its germinating power becomes 
greatly weakened. These men have the reputation of being the most success- 
ful growers in the country, and sell seed to their neighbors at an exorbitant 
price. To their shrewdness must be credited the fact of their giving to their 
neighbors new seed, which will not always give the desired results, The seed 
these growers use, would be discarded by any dealer, and by those who seem 
to have authority to place the value of all seeds upon the test of germination. 

The egg plant grown in hot climates produces an enormous quantity of 
seed of high germinating power, and what would be called a handsome sample. 
The egg plant grown on Long Island grows to a much larger size, has but few 
seeds, and these of low germinating power, and have a shrunken, shriveled 
look, but the growers have no trouble in getting $5 per ounce for the seed, 
because of the better fruit it produces. An ounce of this seed, that many 
dealers would reject as worthless, will yield three times the number of barrels 
of fruit as would the same amount of seed grown at the extreme South. 

Seed which has not reached maturity, may, it is true, possess the power of 
germination, but it will always retain a disposition to disease and weakness. 
It is true, that disposition may be so far conquered by a coincidence of favor- 
able auspices, and by a soil and temperature peculiarly adapted to the require- 
ments of the plant, that imperfect seeds may produce vigorous and healthy 
plants; but there is always great danger of the crop failure, and of the pro- 
geny’s inheriting disease instead of strength. 

So far as we have been able to learn, our most practical and intelligent 
agriculturists who have paid any attention to the subject, are fully convinced 
that great advantages arise from sowing the largest and most perfect grains of 
all cereals. That by systematic care in the selection of the largest and most 
perfect grains, for seed purposes, the development of the types are perfected. 
The secret of plant breeding, so far as it relates to the cereals, consists in ever 
breeding from the highest developed and most prolific types. 

In choosing the seed, a preference should always be given to that which 
has been grown where the conditions of soil and climate are calculated to bring 
it to perfection, and that all inferior plants should be eliminated from the field 
before the harvest. It is highly important to have all the grains selected for 
seed purposes, uniform and perfectly matured. More important still is it to 
have the seed saved from a field where the plants are uniformly good, rather 


264 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 


than to select from a field where there are to be found many inferior, or 
below the type we wish to secure. By these means seed can be secured uni- 
form in character and in period of maturity. 

SELECTION. 

There is not a field of grain, or of any kind of vegetable, but in which may 
be found some individual of superior merit. To give this an opportunity to 
grow is not only the work, but the duty of the plant breeder. It is the only 
road that will lead him to success; it is direct and certain. Encourage any 
superior growth; take it from its humble position and give it a higher one; 
minister to the necessities that growth, or development entails, and the results 
that follow will be proportionate to the efforts employed. 

Time will not permit of our taking up this order of development in detail, 
but we cannot rest without calling your attention to an important field in which 
the seedsman or specialist has a golden opportunity. This field is the sugar 
beet, grown for seed purposes. 

As before stated, the place to obtain seed is where a given type will, under 
good cultivation, reach the limit of possibilities. No vegetable should be grown 
for seed purposes anywhere else. While this rule is an important one in every 
line, it is doubly so with the sugar beet. 

IS A CHANGE OF SEED NECESSARY? 

Many persons consider a frequent change or removal of seed as an indis- 
pensible condition to the production of a profitable crop. The necessity of this 
change is insisted on by both theoretical and practical horticulturists, for rea- 
sons which they consider conclusive. 

There is a very general impression that a change of “seed” is absolutely 
necessary for a good crop of potatoes, that 1f a given variety is grown for a 
succession of years on the same farm, deterioration, both in quality and quan- 
sity, will be the result. This opinion being held by neighbors, it is common 
practice for them to exchange stocks for planting. Than this, there can be no 
greater mistake, either in principle or practice. We know of farmers who 
usually get four hundred bushels per acre, or double an ordinary crop, who 
have not changed, and have used “seed” of their own saving for the past 
twenty years. 

Under certain circumstances it is always best to get potatoes for seed pur- 
poses far from where they are to be planted for the production of a crop. This 
is particularly true when we have in view earliness of maturity, which, under 
many circumstances, is a matter of vital importance, as, for instance. where a 
second crop is to follow, as is the case on Long Island, where a second crop 
is the rule, rather than the exception, with our intensive system of farming. 
Seed grown at the extreme Northern point, where the variety will perfect its 
growth and perfectly mature its seed, will reproduce itself, in our latitude, 
several days earlier than that of our own production, which makes a second 
crop possible, where, if seed of our own production were used the result might 
not follow. 

Our observation has proven most conclusively that it is not profitable to 
save “seed” from a crop grown from Northern “seed,” as they are no earlier 
the second year, and not so productive. It is, therefore. much better to get 
seed from the North annually if a second crop is desirable. 


, 


ON ARTIFICIAL POLLINATION OF WHEAT 
By William B. Alwood, Blacksburg, Va. 


The writer began the study of varieties of wheat in 1882 upon taking 
charge of the field experiments of the Ohio Agricultural Experiment Station, 
and continued the work until the summer of 1886. Primarily the lines of in- 
vestigation undertaken were purely practical, yet I trust enough of scientific 
importance was noted to warrant the presentation of these notes. 

My attention was largely directed to grouping the cultivated varieties 
which could be obtained from home and foreign sources into several more or 
less clearly defined groups which have been published elsewhere (4th Rep. 
Ohio Agr’l Exp. Station, 1885). 

The published accounts of work in artificial pollination of wheat which I 
had been able to obtain up to the time of beginning this work consisted merely 
of fragmentary notices in current publications devoted to agricultural matters, 
and up to the present time most that has appeared has been fragmentary and 
incomplete. 

The writer worked two seasons—1882 and 1883—before learning how to 
manipulate the flowers so as to produce a cross with certainty. At first I 
worked with such implements as a poor dissecting case furnished, but soon 
confined myself to a couple pair of forceps and at last settled onto what proved 
the most successful instrument for this work that has come to my notice. 
This was an ordinary pair of No. 00 steel jeweler’s forceps, with the ends 
dressed down to the size of a large pin for one and one-half inches back from 
the point, the point being left flat and one-sixteenth of an inch broad. This I 
found to be about the only instrument necessary, though others may be found 
convenient. My plan of operation was to select a head which suited the pur- 
pose in view, remove the spikelets from one side and those not desired on 
the other (usually leaving a couple more than I desired to operate upon). 

It was generally found convenient to operate upon about five spikelets and 
of these the central flowering glumes were removed, leaving but the two outer 
ones. From these the anthers were then removed by taking the flowering 
glume between the thumb and forefinger of the left hand and carefully insert- 
ing the closed blades of the forceps between the glumes and palae, slowly re- 
leasing them until the parts are sufficiently opened to expose the enclosed 
anthers and stigma of the flower. By careful pressure of the thumb and 
finger of the left hand the flower is kept open and a dextrous operation with 
the forceps removes all three of the anthers at one operation. This completes 
the first part of the work. (The couple of spikelets left unworked are for 
observation as to maturity of the flowers. It is unsafe to allow them to 


266 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 


remain on the spike until they bloom, and after some experience one will 
get. on quite well without them, The treated flowers were generally de- 
prived of their anthers just as the spike made its appearance above the last 
leaf. 

The second part of the operation is to fertilize the pistils of the treated 
flowers when ready to receive the pollen. The length of time between these 
two operations will vary according to maturity of flowers when the anthers 
were removed and also with conditions of weather. Successful crosses were 
made when both operations were performed on the same day and also when 
four days elapsed between the two operations. 

Much of the success or failure of the experimenter depends upon the cer- 
tainty with which he is able to furnish the ripening pistil with good healthy 
pollen. On this point the writer made an observation while at work in the 
neld during the season of 1884, which ever afterward solved the question of 
securing proper pollen. This observation was the actual blossoming of one 
of the flowers on a head under treatment. The glumes were seen to part with 
a slow but plainly visible motion, the palae also parting with them and ex- 
posing the enclosed anthers and pistil to view. The width of the opening was 
not measured but was judged to be between one- and two-sixteenths of an 
inch. The filaments which support the anthers rapidly elongated, thrusting the 
latter through the opening when they immediately turned downward and shed 
their pollen. 

(Noting that the pollen was shed suddenly just as the anthers were thrust 
out of the parts enclosing the flower, it occurred to me that that was the time 
to take the pollen for the work. This was afterwards followed except that I - 
learned how to hasten the process of ripening by plucking heads on which 
flowers were nearly mature, drawing back the outer glumes and palets on one 
side and exposing the anthers to hot sunshine. The pollen was gathered in a 
small dish and applied with a camel’s hair pencil to pistils of the flowers pre- 
viously prepared, opening the glumes as already described, by means of the 
small forceps. The glumes and pales of worked flowers open when the pistil 
is ripe just as though the anthers had not been removed, hence pollen may 
reach a castrated flower by natural agencies.) 

I do not wish to pass the operation of blooming as observed in numerous 
instances during my later work without noticing it more particularly. The time 
occupied by the flower in opening is from one to two minutes, the anthers can 
be seen to immediately rise out from the opened flower and shed their pollen, 
and strictly speaking I consider the period of bloom lasts about five minutes, 
certainly does not exceed ten. As soon as I saw the copious amount of pollen 
poured out among the spikelets on the head the fact was at once impressed 
upon me that the wheat flower was not of necessity strictly self-fertilizing. 
Any other flower on the same or adjacent head which might be open at this 
time is very liable to receive pollen and thus at least its own pollen be assisted 
in the act of fertilization. With the question of natural cross-fertilization in 
view I was led to examine more carefully the flowers and found that in a 
great many instances the filaments of the two-branched plumose stigma extend 
out laterally, far enough to reach quite through the enclosing parts, and in my 
estimation making it possible for them to receive pollen from the outside if by 


ARTIFICIAL POLLINATION OF WHEAT. 207 


by any chance it should not come to them through the opening of the flower. I 
attempted to follow up this matter and will refer to it again at the close of 
these notes. 

As to the actual results of the work in artificial pollination I cannot say as 
much as I should like. The crosses made in 1884 were all destroyed by the 
severe winter of 1884-5, as was also nearly the whole experimental work with 
wheat, including some two hundred so-called varieties. With several varieties, 
a few stalks of which survived, the work was again taken up in ’85 and the 
progeny of some of these crosses harvested in ’86 are shown on the cards here- 
with exhibited. In all the crosses here shown, Velvet Chaff, which is truly a 
characteristic variety, was used as the male parent. This variety proved to be 
one of the most hardy with us and was the standard variety used in all the 
general experimental work. The specimens here exhibited show what a re- 
markable influence it had upon the three clean chaffed, beardless varieties with 
which it was crossed. These latter were Russian May, Siberian and Big 
Frame. 

Referring again to the matter of whether ovaries are strictly fertilized 
with their own pollen in nature, I will say that a portion of the blossoms on a 
large number of heads were deprived of the anthers and left to note develop- 
ment of the kernel. In a great many of these kernels were formed and these 
afterward planted brought plants true to the type of the variety. If it is asked 
why were they not crosses, the answer would be that the heads of their own 
variety being so plentiful about them and the others being some distance re- 
moved, there was no opportunity for crossing. 

Some of the heads produced in this experiment were eleven inches long 
by actual measurement and were well filled, but in the subsequent operations 
of the Ohio Station, after I severed my connection with it, these crosses were 
entirely lost. 


INDEX TO PLANT NAMES 


LOE SVE STCUINGIOS 2°. 3 ee ee ae ae ae 
oh OD 0 BIRE PSS IPE OS Aen rg 2 
oo SPECT PETES, 93055 SEN TOP ae ara a er 18 


176, 233, 239 


SLD SRCES og Sighs SIRS aeapan, OR eee a 239 
DLO NTRS tec IS I a ee ea 33 
PURVES « cag Ra ere en 241 
7 IDEAS [EES FF oO era rar a ae 186 
aaa te Ge es week oc i cksiaus aS «Gece ge tes geek ewe 263 
eM Ue ad rose ho rok atc ea tayateo fe cts) ara 9 ve 0! 70; 73, 185; 250 
SSNS PEE GR 8 Ae ee ares cra gee ae a 120; 137,, 107 
Beg PE yo cr cdsks os, @ moe Eich bacod tsoeie wl bre attic sie 5o. 106,132; 137.4079 
LS LEIS Rea eee erie eeree 66-76; 170, 107,250,200; 261 
ee eat rie Se sate Space ai aiaiie! oS vn 5 wie, we ew dd 64, 78 
SUELO TEI ig CEES Be Ben een Ie Re Ll3, 233, 242 
LE CIDEIE IGA S cogs Bie eee ap Cnc RUE 167 
LEVELS OTGINE\ 2 ape eee eee a Pee See ne 120, 134; 227, 228, 236 
“2 LE SS SPIER) 0 ONS AN aa 134 
De ICE I etaiae 6 oe, ia ac kee eH o ocd a aacach sao 3 Bierce 77 2e 
SILIEEE. “3 ONS Ups ha Nese a nr Ge a QO, 9I, 209, 233, 240 
(CET ESC Aa ae Ee 7. Tie 26; 66,112) DUS isd 
UIEICIL, Dang Cece Ree revi Sheeran gC a er a 233, 240 
(ETRE DUFUR Ue ices ie ape ne Ree or 25 
“UEP AEE eg ah eked 8 SAN a er eI RE aoe) 240 
ES re ie Zemes OA. 720) 107, 120, 130). 035,114 1, L7onezog 
(LIS EET 2S haa fa oo Ga Oe nea nea -128, 129 
PP igs CIENT efecto 3% arog Scag $2.48 oes acs «ds Stereos 13, 242 
SNES 5c Seog e085 CO ee ne 60,70, -72,:73, Ge 
SEER to mic tees eapeicoeoeys + = 138; 56,57, 76, 103, 126, 182, 198, 260 
CD USEELGIGT 21. NE SP aa a 242 


CPOE) Soe ny RO RAN ea ae 42,52, 90, Ol 


270 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 


COMPA, alten Soateie.o bre. os weakere ee Ges cece et eee er ee 46, 51, 
CHAD Weis) cht Gila eens ae OSes Ge nn See 
(Openinii bets Bie Seis chan WM cur unes Ware wake aut oe ee 27 
SPENT Eat AY eee cha hl oo ee mien ee TEs 
AIM pores ana noe eps hfe k's tg doe temo one 
Od cinile ea et a coe ar Ee eS ee MNS. 
PSAP ONT 5 afore ahetece eo arate Pay eat ta, ee 
DU GARNEAU Soho co 0 Aer te NRE COSTA wae act ae) wee ee i ee 1 
ot dail cen ce else oor ek oe Ee se ee 76, 
Prica CH eath) 5 0 023 ne ee eee ee ee 
Res Soe So ee actin © cnet sons ee aie wey BE Ee: Pee 2225 
RG TUCUOTINN ec Pca es ee ot whe oe ee a Sn eee 64, 
Me GHEE ooh, ho sete acs it RA ac ere de TAI, 142, 15532940 
Medco oato sisi S fee EO RC RES UCR Eee Cee 
SEESEOEEEY, pots Pets Site -aas oteya ts 65,.127,, 128, 129,.132, 3 
Grape: 2 :26,.27,; 65, 124, 126, 127; 120, 130; 132; 150, 221,245 
tert HENS 2 2's 8 otc a ated wm nynse win aininca-aee ieee ee ee 
[Se | Tipe! G0) 1 eg eee ces Se eRe PO ME UE RA ELEY, So 
PCat tale sate ons OLR Se a Ree roe Cee eee eee 
bees gy ne ee ORES Mec eres nT: 
eis, Soe lass) cbs sis sees & nee aoe et ome es te ee 
RATER es Si Nee f Sicnes onde goth abs Yane ge eset eenmeeainna, Sr eione eats here 
IIA IRIEMOTA. 922 iw atise' no in iin ws Woo eso aens & aoe AE 52, 120 
iagtintittit 22 Goss ae 5 eee ee eee er a ee 238, 
PAG ETATIS, 0. 2 ont. Westy» claus tel ¢ BUT ee ae eee 
SE) ee he eae ee ee re ee Se SPT eee oy ey 5 aS 58,. 103, lage 
emaieras oo Sagi Ad cite Mle ete ails Eis a eee eee eo ee 64, 
OMT OES Rie bated abet st dis ies adie a perclatea Bilas cota oc tenn ee 
WTO <Ais ese ete wee a Be ee oe care ee ee ce eee 
Drees: 1. 5 Salk USE a eel Ee ee ee eee 241, 
Ones = .° 1 5,c'gecioy obec ee eee Se re ee igs 
PAaBaver <.°.%..50s esis cate oes ae Oe eee ie etree oe 
Pafstips'. <i sei ok ee ee eet ae ee 
PEA. 2 56 sche bins pina cw wy By dg ek ME et ea NN ie Oh, a 
PGA 2 hbedisd 5.3 3 2e RA ee eee 65, 66, 


Lo ere Ere tm Coe SE ik 127.) 1207 233" 


INDEX TO PLANT NAMES. 


a re ae nee, Coa solo Mais Ga Se we Ewe He Oe 76 
RENN errr nef My he ee ala acai ectiena, he bt eeieleee oie « 185 
RRM ee te re See rog sot, Gia Gs aw ok ee Ba 72) 120, 1574 201 2s 
2 LD UD Apher ARRAS: See -a a ee Serre 38, 53, 66, 258, 264 
(7) SLUD te otcayie 2 ng 6; 12) 292 
mR PES te recs ens cre in ras © oa lars aon Darwen are, ol alersia 161 
PDE 2 oe RE APG Sol ey i eC 138, 230 
pa oer cGy vat sicesiss Gio ais. soni ds sla edo ae Ses 129 
5 EU SIE SR ae a 66,0126, 122; 157,225,207 
2p DL DUS RRC rahe Ae ei ss de re 64 
aNMRN ET PS PE Fen ees Se w. SSe cc aor scawvateh eb 200 8b we dp as, ae 259 
Re ME Se Sl ce hae ape oe kb 66, 02; E11, 114,120) Zan 
DES » et 3 eee aS ese ee 237 
LEDS DE GS eee che ye oa eg a 261 
POE ca SS CRS SR 137, 179 
ESS og EST Se 240 
SLU J. (CIDer ree Raa ease een ere eee ok ee (38, 157 
SEUSS. 3 4 ici eel a RI te pre ba dr 77, 123 
5122 Un DCI ee ee 1262, 520; 1577 160; 225,251 
eR annA BN Ratan OT ee Viren IA I cen, asx scales a oabi8 oboe 240 
SLES CODE eRe a ae as ae 22) AGG 
Sc Gsnte | DePEIS CTE iie e a  ie  ee 264 
See: [Ae Ben 23, OF; JO, 7o;. 126, 5 230, 20 
STRIPERS 6 eS Gee go, yl 
“LO TIED see ar ce Cnc Rese ean ee 265 70; 277 
“LAL 25 at tI B ew 67 
OO RISIR oa oe grea GES are go 52 
Rem reesei to ee ieee ati ai de eels ie 7 OE 55 
Riinniscenalson GAPE tee wc pe ne oe bee wae es 64, 65, 159, 161 
Oo EADS EGAVG| DVRS) on GMa ae ke ee 48, 51 
Ogee TSP 298» ai ae eel aa 233 
Nyiteat 2,0; 15,325.35, 575 59, 60, 71,103, 126; 130, 136, 137, 

179, 183, 265 
“SITES cister 2.8 3 clea Bs cae ea naa em em ecg 259 
CRUD 2 ofeey 3 te chine Oa ee Te NE Ce are en te ae 161 
AUSEPENE, 4: Bens do Geta AK Se Ee oe On ne re ae ef 263 


The Horticultural Society 
of New York  ~ ut 


INCORPORATED 1902 


MEMOIRS, VOLUME II 


JOroceedings of the 


Gnternational Conference 


Wlant Wardiness 


and 


Acclimatisation 


1907 


Held in the rooms of the American Institute 
of the City of New York, and in the Museum 
Building of the New York Botanical Garden 


October lst to 3rd w& 
1907 


e 
x. 
= 
- 


Fn 
cranes 


S, 


~The Horticultural Society 
of Pew Dork 


Incorporated 1902 
MEMOIRS, VOLUME II 


Proceedings of the 


International Conference 


Plant Hardiness 


Acclimatization 
1907 | sheet 2 


Held in the rooms of the American Institute 
of the City of New York, and in the Museum 
Building of the New York Botanical Garden 


erooer. Ist to 3rd, 1907 


Copyright 1910 


By The Horticultural Society of New York 


The Horticultural Society 
of jeew Work 


Gncorporaten 1902 


1907 


JOresitent 


JAmeEs Woop 


Dice-JOresinents 


J. Crossy Brown GrorcE T. PoweELi SPENCER TRASK 
F. M. HexAmer SAMUEL THORNE 
Creagurer 


FrepErIc R. NEWBOLD 


Secretary 
LEONARD BARRON 


Ensuncil 
Ex-officio 
THE OFFICERS OF THE SOCIETY 


Elected 
N. L. Brirron, Chairman 

C. L. ALLEN J. S. Horsroox J. RorHRS 

lee iia ATKINS Joun E. LAGER GEORGE SCHLEGEL 
M. AYERS E. L. Marston H. A. SIEBRECHT 
F. W. BruGGERHOF CLEMENT Moore R. TAYLOR 
James W. CROMWELL GrorcE V. NASH J. H. Troy 

C. F, Dietricu W. NILsson C. W. Warp 

T. A. HAVEMEYER P. O’Mara A. L. WILLIS 


F. R. PIErson 


Committee of Arrangements 


N. L. BRITTON, Chairman 
LEONARD BARRON H. A. SIEBRECEHM 
P. O7MARA JAMES WOOD 


Patrons 


SUBSCRIPTIONS TOWARD THE EXPENSES OF THE CONFERENCE AND THE 
PUBLICATION OF THE PROCEEDINGS WERE RECEIVED FROM 


THE FOLLOWING: 


B. G. Amend E. McMillen 

E. F. Arnold G. T. Powell 

S. P. Avery. S. Riker 

Ne Ee Britton H. H. Rusby 

A. Brown | ‘H. A. Siebrecht 
J. C. Brown Miss E. J. Stone 
J. W. Cromwell J. M. Thorburn 
A. F. Estabrook Samuel Thorne 
J. J. Goodwin A. L. Willis 
Mrs. E. Herrman Mrs. C. B. Wood 
T. F. Jackson James Wood 

L. Lawrence W.H.S. Wood 


G. Leslie 


JOapers JOresented at the Conference 


First Session, Tuesday, October 1 


Factors AFFECTING THE SEASONAL ACc- my: 
emRES BO EAGT SS < .dac.s «= o.0)< 5 vce ee 8 D. T. MacDougal 3 
Air DRAINAGE AS AFFECTING THE AC- 
GRIMATIZATION OF. PLANTS.....4..0664. Brust A. Bessey. 25 


THe REAL Factors IN ACCLIMATIZATION.F. E. Clements.. 37 


EVAPORATION AS A CrLiImMaTic Factor INn- 
BRUENCING VEGETATION. ..........+6+ B. E. Livingston. 43 


RESISTANCE TO CoLtp, Heat, WET, 
DrouGHT, Sorts, INsects, FUNGI, IN 
eRe N IDEM halon SG Deke Sy ca aye: Varo 8S are ah c V. Munsons.. 63 


Is ACCLIMATIZATION AN ImpossIBILITy?..N. E. Hansen... 69 


DEVELOPING HARDY FRUITS FOR THE NORTH 
MUSSISSEPPI. NATE Y Sol i6 0 5 x sie Be wie eo Se eGehCCM. se =< 79 


Second Session, Thursday October 3 


EXPERIMENTS IN PLANT ACCLIMATIZATION 


MM MUM GNANI soy oth Soha avkhel a brbce Qe Kosta ees © iW. Evans... 87 
PLANT IMPROVEMENTS NEEDED IN SPECIFIC 

(LAISIDS - ora gases NOI ge pa ae a gee VM. ays 2... 7, 
PLANTS FROM East ASIA AND WESTERN 

uROPE.ON ILONG ISLAND. :....-.-<.«6+ AST AACS sien 103 


JOapers Read by Citle 


COOPERATIVE METHODS OF ASCERTAINING 


FIAEOUNESS oTNGERUTTS. 6c. ees de ee 3 Flic SEOUL tte 113 
Factors AFFECTING HARDINESS OF THE 
PELE Sg bee al, ae ee a OU. P. Hedrick. 2. 119 


OBSERVATIONS ON HARDINESS OF PLANTS 
CULTIVATED AT THE NEw YorK BOoTANIT- 
SENG, (GURNEE Geo. V. Nash.5-129 


OBSERVATIONS IN THE REGION AT THE 
PimAnion lame MICHIGAN . 25.2. 45. .+ >. Jens Jensen..... 145 


Pee RNATIONAL* CONFERENCE 
SNe PEANT HARDINESS AND 
meCUurMATIZ ATION. 


First SESSION—MORNING. 


Held in the Rooms of the American Institute, 19 West 44th 
Street, New York City, October Ist; 1907, at 10 A. M., the 
President, James Wood, presiding. 


The President—We meet in these rooms as the guests of the Ameri- 
can Institute of the City of New York, and we have the President of the 
Institute here with us this morning, Mr. Rutter, and I am sure we will 
be pleased if Mr. Rutter would give us a word of welcome here. 

Mr. Rutter—Mr. President and Gentlemen and Ladies: I am glad 
to see you, the members of the Horticultural Society of New York. 

On behalf of the American Institute, it affords me very great pleas- 
ure to welcome you, not only to the City of New York, but to the use 
of the rooms of the American Institute. 

In former years it held very large expositions, and every individual 
who had anything useful or anything novel that he wanted to introduce 
to the world, was only too ready to take space and exhibit it in the in- 
terests of the world, in these institutes, shows and exhibitions. Since that 
time, of course, the City of New York has changed to that extent that ex- 
hibitions of that kind at the present day would in no circumstances, in 
my judgment, prove a success, for every manufactory, every department 
store, every florist’s establishment, has exhibitions of its own, that 
the public can see day by day, and in this way no interests would be 
served by such an undertaking by the American Institute at the present 
time, in the form of an exhibition, or an exposition. 

I am pleased to say, that the American Institute always takes an in- 
terest, and is always ready to afford its accommodations to kindred 
organizations, to all the societies that have at heart the welfare of the 
agriculturists. 

I believe it has become an undisputed fact that not only the wealth 
of individuals, but the wealth of nations is derived from the soil, and 
the man or the woman who possesses the ability to make two blades of 
grass grow where only one grew years ago, has certainly proved a benefit 
to the world at large, and that is what you are doing, bringing to bear at 
the present time all the scientific knowledge, and all the scientific ap- 


2 HORTICULTURAL. SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 


pliances to produce greater results from the soil than have ever been 
produced heretofore. 

I am sure if you keep on, with the progress that has already been 
_ made, and advance still farther, which doubtless you will do, that we 
who are confined day by day and year by year within the bounds of a 
narrow office or manufactory, will only be too glad to take advantage of 
the benefits you have conferred upon us, to get into the open and enjoy 
the sun and the light of heaven. 

I welcome you, gentlemen, in the house of the American Institute, 
trusting your deliberations will be pleasant and beneficial, and that you 
will leave us with a good impression of the City of New York. 

The President—As to the particular subject of our meeting, we are 
here to do what we are because of the work of two great laws. One is 
the force of heredity and the other is the force of environment. 

Under those two laws we are what we are, and those laws are of 
such wide and universal application that the subject to be considered comes 
under their operation. 

Plants are influenced by heredity, and this force is potent, very potent. 
It is, however, subject to some changes and modifications, such as Pro- 
fessor DeVries has recently called our attention to. 

Plants are influenced by their environment. Their environment and 
the environment of their progenitors have determined their character, 
and it is the change that comes upon their character by the influence of 
environment that we are to consider. 

There are few more interesting things than the consideration of the 
application of the great universal laws, and I am quite sure that our 
meeting here and the papers which we will hear read, and which will be 
discussed, I hope, and I believe, will influence and enlarge our knowledge 
upon these interesting and important matters. The programme calls first 
for a paper from Dr. MacDougal, now of Tucson, Arizona, on “Factors 
Affecting the Seasonal Activities of Plants.” 


Before Dr. MacDougal begins the reading of his paper, I want to. 


say that the new work he is introducing in Arizona is one for which he 
is eminently qualified. Of course, we know of his admirable work here 
in our own New York Botanical Garden, and that he is working there 
under most exceptional conditions, having a range of elevation of over 
a mile as his experiment station. He has the climate, he has it practically 
in his hand, and he has opportunities for observation that are equalled 
by few in the world. 

Dr. MacDougal—Mr. President and Members: I think you have 
handicapped me by these preliminary remarks, because I shall not prob- 
ably be able to show results equal to what you will expect. 


- 


The following paper was read by D. T. MacDougal : 


Factors Affecting the Seasonal Activities of Plants. 


By Dr. D. T. MacDoucat, 
The Desert Laboratory, Tucson, Arizona. 


DISTRIBUTION AND ACCLIMATIZATION. 


Every species inhabits the areas which it has been able to 
reach and occupy from the starting point of its place of origin. 
Neither its birthplace nor any of the places within its range may 
offer the most suitable conditions for the best growth and highest 
development. Beyond seas, over mountain ranges, across the 
equator or past other equally effective barriers may lie plains, 
valleys, plateaus or even continents, where if once introduced, 
it might overbear all competition from the plants already there, 
extending its distribution a thousand-fold and the number of its 
individuals a million-fold. Let the barriers be but once passed 
and it enters into a new kingdom, as the various invasions of 
weeds amply testify. 

The soil, the various factors of climate, the course of the 
seasons, and the actual composition of the plant-covering already 
present in the region, may be such that the intruder becomes an 
integral part of the flora, and it may indeed perish in its origi- 
nal habitat and in the places successively occupied by it, leaving 
us no clew as to its place of origin. 

The value of a cultivated plant is fairly co-ordinate with 
the extent of its possible distribution and culture. Not only 
does its greater cultivation bring a greater total product, but the 
greater the crop the better developed may become the facilities 
by which it and all of its constituents are used to the fullest, and 
to the greatest economy by the human race. 

Our conscious efforts to widen the range of distribution and 
extent of cultivation of species of interest and economic value 
facilitates and aids one of the most basal processes in the life of 
the plant, and it has before it the possibilities of limitless suc- 


4 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 


cess, to compensate for the numerous failures which the worker 
must necessarily encounter. 

Two main considerations confront us in the problems of 
acclimatization. First, a careful examination reveals the fact 
that nearly every species in the wider usage of the term in- 
cludes several races or elementary species, which bear different 
hereditary qualities as: to hardiness, capability for accommoda- 
tion, rapidity of growth and productiveness. Careful culture 
enables a comparison to be made among a group of such forms 
and to select those which bear the desired qualities to make an 
introduction or acclimatization operation successful. Perhaps 
the necessary qualities may be discerned in separate races of ele- 
mentary species, and by hybridizations these qualities are 
brought together into races or species capable of meeting the 
conditions to be encountered. To recount, or even adequately 
illustrate the triumphs and accomplishments of the horticultur- 
ist by methods for the most part very crude, during the last 
century, would be impossible. 

Now, however, by the light of present knowledge, profiting 
by the splendid results of Nilsson with cereals, all such opera- 
tions may be carried out with much greater exactitude and much 
more rapidly than by the old-time method of trial and error, 
most wasteful of skilled energy and time-consuming in human 
life. To-day we may expect as much from the breeder in ten 
years as he might have been able to accomplish in the previous 
half century. The realization has been tardily reached that if 
we are to make alterations in the hereditary qualities of the 
plants useful to us, we must make an accurate analysis to dis- 
close the constituents of the species with which we are dealing, 
and having this information we may proceed with the exactitude 
of the chemist making compounds and extractions in his labora- 
tory. 

With so much to our credit in the way of advance made in 
knowledge of the nature of the plant and its behavior, the other 
important task which confronts us is that of making a similarly 
exact study of climate and of all of the factors which constitute 
the complex set of conditions which we term environment. 

A simple analysis of the relations of a plant to external 


FACTORS: AFFECTING SEASONAL ACTIVITIES. 5 


conditions will be useful for a better understanding of the char- 
acter of the problems involved. The principal factors affecting 
vegetation are undoubtedly light, temperature, moisture, food- 
material and chemical composition and physical consistency of 
the soil. It is obvious to the veriest novice in gardening that 
certain intensities or concentrations of these agencies are neces- 
sary for the welfare of the plant, and that the combinations suit- 
able for one are not for another. 

It will be impossible to give even a brief consideration of 
the special relations of each of these factors to the plant, but we 
may gain an insight into their general character by a considera- 
tion of the more important details with respect to temperature, 
which is one of the most widely interlocking elements of climate. 
The conclusions derived from its consideration may be held to 
apply to the other agencies as well. 

Living matter is an extremely complex substance and we 
must be prepared therefore to find that its relation to its en- 
‘vironment is not simple; this is especially marked with regard 
to temperature. 


CARDINAL POINTS IN TEMPERATURE. 


All of us know by every-day experience that there is a cer- 
tain general degree of heat at which any given species grows best, 
and a discrimination as to the application and regulation of tem- 
perature constitutes one of the most important features of the 
practice of greenhouse gardening. This temperature, which is 
customarily termed the optimum, may be ascertained to within a 
degree or two very easily. If the heat is increased in a green- 
house in which a plant is happily growing at the optimum, it 
will soon be found that such increase lessens the rate and amount 
of growth, and a continued increase will soon bring the thermom- 
eter to a point where a supra-optimum will be reached at which 
growth ceases. This may simply bring the plant to rest as might 
the cold of autumn, and with but slight damage. But if the 
heat be increased still further a third point will be found at 
which the plant is killed and by such a test we will have ascer- 
tained the point of fatal heat. 

Starting again with a plant at the optimum it will be found 


6 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. OF NEW YORK. 


that as the temperature decreases, growth slows down until an 
infra-optimum is reached at which growth ceases as it did at a 
certain point above; this is the temperature of fatal cold at 
which living matter is totally disorganized. 

Our efforts at acclimatization and our work in securing the 
feature of hardiness in plants, with respect to temperature, con- 
sist in operations by which the position of the cardinal points of 
the plant with which we may be working may be altered on the 
scale of the thermometer. These cardinal points undergo wide 
changes in a state of nature, and it is by taking the inherited 
capacity for adaptation of any plant with regard to this particu- 
lar into account that we may hope to make our greatest prog- 
ress. First of all it is obvious that these five critical points in 
the life of any plant change with the development of the indi- 
vidual, and that the optimum slides up or down the scale, or all 
open out more widely. Take any plant, such as the radish, 
wheat, squash or sunflower, and it has been found that seed or 
grains air-dry, and in resting condition, may endure the lowest 
cold that can be produced, that of liquid hydrogen at about 454° 
F. below the freezing point of water, which proves that the fatal 
cold in such cases is extremely low, and to have only a theoreti- 
cal existence. The same seeds in a resting and dried condition 
may be subjected to the heat of boiling water at 212° F., so that 
the points of fatal heat and cold lie far apart in this stage of the 
existence of the plant. Now give them a supply of moisture 
and start germination, and a radical change in the position and 
relation of the critical points ensues. A cold fatal to the active 
seedling will be found near the freezing point of water, and but 
slightly below the infra-optimum, the optimum will be found to 
lie between 80° and 98° F., the supra-optimum and cessation 
of growth will be found between 100° and 120° F. for most 
plants, although many species, especially those native to the 
desert, range higher, while a fatal heat comes within a few de- 
grees above the supra-optimum. 

As the plant nears maturity, the tissues harden, the proto- 
plasm becomes more highly granulose and denser, and has an 
altered chemical composition, by which it again becomes less sus- 
ceptible to alterations, and again the cardinal points take posi- 


PAGtORS” AFFECTING SEASONAL ACTIVITIES. 7 


tions more widely separated from each other, and in the seed 
are again able to endure any cold which they may encounter. 


THERMAL REQUIREMENTS OF A PLANT. 


This brings us at once to the consideration of the practi- 
cability of some estimation of the thermal constant of any form, 
or the amount of heat necessary for its seasonal or cyclical de- 
velopment. The first effort toward fixing any such standard 
appears to have been made by Reaumur, the inventor of the ther- 
mometric scale which bears his name. He adopted the sum of the 
mean daily temperatures, as recorded by his thermometer in the 
shade, as an index of the amount of heat required to bring a 
plant to any given stage of development, using averages of the 
daily maximum and minimum to obtain his mean daily temper- 
atures. According to Abbe, Reaumur calculated the sum 
of the averages constituting the heat exposure of a plant at his 
locality in France during the 91 days of April, May and June, 
1734, to be equivalent to 1160° C., but in the following year it 
amounted to only 1015° C. 

Adanson disregarded all temperatures below freezing, tak- 
ing only the sum of the positive temperatures on the centigrade 
scale, and began the summation of heat exposures thus derived 
with the first day of the calendar year for any given season. 

Boussingault attempted to derive the thermal constant of a 
vegetative period, or any part of it, by multiplying the mean tem- 
perature of the air by the duration in days. 

Gasparin calculated thermal constants from temperatures 
obtained from insolation thermometers exposed to direct sun- 
light while lying on the sod, which would record 20° to 30° C. 
higher than shade temperatures, and showing a_ difference 
equivalent to three to six degrees latitude. By this method, the 
thermal constant required for the germination and maturity of 
the seed of wheat amounted to 2450° C. 

Variations in the method of calculation of the thermal con- 
stant have been made by various investigators, in which this 
standard has been obtained by multiplying the mean tempera- 
ture by the square of the number of days involved, others multi- 
plying of days by the square of the mean daily temperatures. 


8 HORTICULTURAL . SOCIETY “OF “NEW “YOKE 


Some begin this calculation of the heat exposure with the appear- 
ance of the earliest species to show sign of awakening activity. 

As an application of the principle of the thermal constant 
many bio-geographers have attempted to explain distribution by 
the mean annual temperature to the regions concerned. Among 
the most notable of such works is to be mentioned that of Hoff- 
man, of Giessen, South Germany, who used the sum of the inso- 
lation temperatures from the Ist of January in calculating the 
thermal constants, and it is his data which are quoted so freely 
in all general treatises on plant geography and the thermal rela- 
tions of vegetation. Drude uses the mean annual temperatures 
in his treatment of the subject, in which he is followed by Pound 
and Clement in their Phytogeography of Nebraska. 

It need scarce be said that the mass of data accumulated by 
the various methods described during the last century and a half 
is confusing on account of the highly empirical character of the 
principles upon which each separate investigation has been 
based, the different standards of thermometry, and the utter lack 
of uniformity of technique. The last defect alone is sufficient 
to invalidate most of the results, which are nearly all valueless 
so far as any application is concerned, in this connection. Con- 
cerning the futility of research upon this subject it is most sig- 
nificant that Warming and Schimper refuse to recognize the 
thermal constant as a definable factor in the relations of plants 
to climate. 

In the effort to outline some method for the calibration of 
heat exposure of plants growing in the open, the work of Herve 
Mangon seems to offer the most valuable suggestions. Mangon 
computes all shade temperatures from the time of germination 
of seeds until maturity of the plant was reached, disregarding all 
measurements in which the mean daily temperatures is less than 
6° C. (42° F.). By this method he found the sum of mean 
daily temperatures necessary for the ripening of wheat in Nor- 
mandy in 1870-1879 to vary between 2219 and 2517, and with 
the data of several seasons at hand it was possible to predict 
the date of ripening of wheat within three or four days. 

The great variation shown by a plant with regard to the 
heat exposure calculated by Mangon’s method is in all probabil- 


9 


TOMA AMMA Dis. 


BACTORS AFFECTING SEASONAL 


“dad A[IV[IUWIS 91e SaIzT]LOO] Y}Oq ur jUIOd Surzsa11 ay} MOjaq saimsodx ay 
pau] aul, aseq 9Y} aAOqe SeaIe ay] 
24} Aq pasojoua oul] aseq Aavay ay} aAoge svoie oy], 


‘QUIT aSEq 94} MOTAq pajuasa4 


‘QAOIS YOO[Way IY} Ul sinsodxa 9y} a}OUap ‘saulT pazjOp 24} Aq 


*‘SpuNnOIs SHOIdIEGI9Y 94} JO “Apeis1}UII-SoaisoIp-InoOY UI S9insodxea 4eay [e}O} 94} JUaSS1daI SoU] pros 
“1061 “Trudy 0} ‘0061 ‘[tidy ‘uUapiery [votueJOg YIOX MaNp Ul d9insodxo9 jeaY [e}JO]L 


= az + lasts ee 
Ldz7S ‘9nY ATNL INA AYW Weyd\y 
WY diy HOY YN 
AS 0067 
| Ee 
| | =. 


m7 Tr 


_ 


ae eae ae 


10 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORE 


ity due to the faulty method of calculating such exposures. The 
performances of an engine are not to be calculated by the total 
averages of the steam pressure during its working days, but may 
be quite exactly determined by multiplying the pressure by the 
number of hours during which pressure was kept up and used. 

A similar relation holds with regard to the use and effect 
of radiant energy in the plant, and although any method of es- 
timation must be more or less arbitrary, yet it seems possible to 
select one which will be capable of wide application and corre- 
sponding value. In the evolution of such a method for plants 
in the temperate zone it seems less artificial to begin the calcu- 
lation of the heat exposure with the winter solstice instead of 
January Ist, and as has been done by several writers, or if eco- 
nomic plants are under consideration, take the date of planting 
as a starting point. It also seems most convenient to use the 
temperature of the freezing point of water as a base line for the 
thermometry of the plant. 

The application of the method then simply entails the cal- 
culation of the number of hours to which a plant has been ex- 
posed to temperatures above the freezing point from the winter 
solstice or other starting point until the stage of development, 
such as flowering or fruiting, under consideration has been 
reached. The time factor is then properly applied to the height 
of the thermometer above the freezing point during the period 
mentioned. In actual practice this may be easily done by com- 
puting the area enclosed by a thermographic tracing of the tem- 
perature and the base line of the sheet for the period over which 
the development of a plant is to be studied by means of a pla- 
nimeter. It was found by this method that the flowers of Acer 
saccharinum were mature and ready for fertilization on March 
26, 1901, in the New York Botanical Garden, after 1100 hours’ 
exposure to temperature above zero with a totality of 3109 
hour-centigrade units: Draba verna attained the same stage 
something earlier in 974 hours, with 1644 hour-centigrade-units’ 
exposure. 

Now, it is by no means to be assumed that the above data 
represent the fixed and invariable constant heat exposure of the 
plants in question, for as has been described previously, the car- 


FACTORS AFFECTING SEASONAL ACTIVITIES. 1 


dinal points, including the optimum for growth and develop- 
ment, may be altered by other conditions which affect the plant. 
The variation of which a plant is capable represents its possible 
geographical range which may be mapped with fair accuracy. 
Thus the individuals of a species which live nearest the pole have 
made such accommodations that they are able to accomplish de- 
velopment with a minimum number of heat units, in a minimum 
number of hours. As the range of a species is traversed toward 
the equator or to lower elevations, a place is reached where the 
heat exposures are at an optimum for the plant, and beyond this, 
development is retarded until the southern limit of the species is 
reached. The actual limits are of course determined by the en- 
tire complex of conditions, of which insolation is also an im- 
portant factor, but for the sake of clearness, attention is focussed 
upon temperature alone. 

The gradual accommodation and acclimatization of grains 
to regions to the northward has nowhere been more systematic- 
ally studied than in the Scandinavian peninsula, and Schubeler’s 
consideration of available results led to the conclusion that corn 
from lower latitudes or elevations ripened earlier when taken 
northward and upward, although the light and average tempera- 
ture was less. This precocity in development persisted for some 
time, when seeds were taken back to the southern localities. In 
some cases the seeds and sometimes the leaves reached a greater 
size if the conditions permitted full development in the northern 
extensions, but this accommodation was not carried to the first 
generation in plants in the south from northern grown seeds. It 
was also noted that the colors of various organs as well as the 
aroma was increased in plants taken northward if the introduc- 
tion did not go beyond the limit of conditions allowing full de- 
velopment. (Schubeler, F. C. Viridarum Norvegicum. Norges 
Vaxtrage. Et Bidrag til Nord-Europas Natur-Og Kulturhis- 
torie. 1. Christiania, 1885. Rev. in Bot. centralb. 28: 203. 1886.) 

The relation of the plant to negative exposures is one of en- 
durance and not of performance, and the interpretation of the 
influence of cold upon distribution may not be made by the for- 
mula given above. The total amount of negative or cold ex- 
posure is undoubtedly the predominating one, but the minimum, 


12 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY “OP NEW =VORK 


the range in variation, and the occurrence of minima below the 
freezing point during the vegetative season, are also of import- 
ance in distribution and await the acquisition of additional data 
before their interpretation may be attempted successfully. Some 
of these factors are extremely localized, and the poleward limit 
of distribution in the northern hemisphere of many species is 
known to run in extremely irregular lines. 

Some illustration of this is gained from the results of the 
comparative study of the climate in the hemlock grove of the 
New York Botanical Garden and the meadow of the herbaceous 
grounds, not more than 500 yards distant, made in 1900 and 
1901. The data obtained show that the meadow carpet re- 
ceived 78836 hour-degrees of heat during the year ending April 
I, 1901, extending over 7282 hours of exposure to temperatures 
above the freezing point, while the hemlocks received but 68596 
similar units with an exposure to temperatures above the freez- 
ing point for 7024 hours. The meadow was exposed to 5569 
units of temperature below the freezing point and the hemlocks 
5791 units. The herbaceous grounds were below the freezing 
point for 1478 hours, and the hemlocks for 1736 hours. 

Here, then, in two localities within rifle shot are to be found 
two habitats for plants in which the difference in the length of 
the season as indicated by the number of hours above the freez- 
ing point amounts to nearly eleven days, the total number of 
heat units in the meadow being 13% in excess of that of the 
forest. The maximum and average maximum of the meadow 
are higher, and the minima and average minima are lower, the 
mean average of the hemlocks being lower, however, than that of 
the meadow. The value of such observations is greatly en- 
hanced by the fact that they represent a comparatively narrow 
range of variation. Thus, in the several years in which observa- 
tions were made as to the matter, the length of the period be- 
tween the last frost of spring and the first of autumn lay between 
167 and 171 days in the New York Botanical Garden. 

The data upon which these conclusions rest are shown in the 
accompanying tables. The amounts given under “total expos- 
ure’ represent the product of the number of degrees above freez- 
ing point multiplied by the number of hours. The value of the 


FACTORS AFFECTING: SEASONAL ACTIVITIES. 13 


centigrade-hour-unit represented in such amounts is 9/1600, 
and of Fahrenheit-hour-units 81/8000. The number of hour 
units is therefore to be found by simple division. -+ indicates 
temperature exposures above freezing ; — below freezing. 


THERMOGRAPHIC OBSERVATIONS IN N. Y. BOT. GARDEN, 1goo-O!. 
HERBACEOUS GROUNDS. HEMLOCK GROVE. 


D Total Number of Total Number of 
ate Exposure Hours Exposure Hours 
Apo O tov 16, 1900:.... ....%> +4.25 149 Teaegul 152 
— .14 19 — .o8 16 
Sy DEIL TOR Re +9.50 168 +8.47 168 
NTE 2S tOl BO nee we cissies oe ee +8.45 168 +7.56 168 
pail sOrto May 7. «oc cx. ce oe 7.75 168 mets O) | = 168 
Deira EO! UAG 5 Sek nin ais cared ws +9.45 164 +10.25 168 
— .02 4 
WieiyamAent Onis sherocshs Sortnns 6 11.56 168 10.91 168 
INMLEN? BIRWOCZISSS es ois hoi ce eeCe 12.37 168 11.76 168 
Nitvae2SmstOMutmel Ann. tss.5 5. 12.50 168 11.66 168 
MITEWARTOMMIe cn caiccanin accmoee 12.85 168 177 168 
JWinS Git {roy Tipe oes COCs eee 13.00 168 12.10 168 
/ WE SOG toe er 15.21 169 12.93 169 
JE ise evel | 0 aa ae eee 16.32 167 14.17 167 
“HL? SCs DG eee ara ae 16.85 168 15.16 168 
JiGills7 <0) (ho. MCS eee een 15.80 168 15.42 168 
elk 1): tie a eecieser ooeoneoon W773 168 15.19 168 
vith Zeta wes (0 eine 15.35 168 14.42 168 
ilivyesOntowAlgOe ssc. cayenne 14.46 168 13.00 168 
EXT OMLON TS 5 ohis cca cacle tats 18.86 168 15.04 168 
INGER, RANG) 10) eras ee RIO a 15.66 168 14.10 168 
ANGE BO MOY aoe eta OOS OE 15.27 168 14.29 168 
Nile e7mtOR SED th, 3s osc his oe. ncen 16.36 168 15.17 168 
Beir srtOmIOs tas iahce eos xa ae 15.84 168 14.93 168 
S@viE 10) GOL 1/o Gog ee a aoa ee oe 13.25 168 13.24 168 
SET Lo) Ae ee eae 10.21 168 9.81 168 
SED Emo etOn OCS Isis svags ane vs a 12.35 168 10.12 168 
(WCEIEtONS: canines Seek we cede 13.30 168 11.80 168 
(Che, Gite). i eee pode eae oes 9.30 168 8.56 168 
INGO PD 2s Oo cece s ats +6.25 159 +5.95 168 
—0.15 9 ae 
OG ZA We CLs oe Om nae + 10.25 168 -++9.90 168 
OG: ZO) WO INOW Sc coaenpoeuma 7.16 168 7.70 168 
“ta UO ais ea +4.30 156 +4.50 168 
— .24 12 ras 
eerie) GO ctOMee 2... sss. sot 4.40 138 +2.90 135 
— AI 30 — .50 33 
INC VAMEROM COP 2Oiyencrs a ersvee le wicg as +7.50 168 +6.05 168 
reer2O to. DCCs. 3. cu cwe ene cde +2.86 146 +2.80 155 
— .65 22 — .30 13 
PCCM MLO TOM ayccas.cisie actos I-35 133 +1.95 138 
— 71 35 — .50 30 
IDCs. THO) Wo), MGA ee eee + .60 32 ar Se 22 


—3.60 136 —5.90 146 


14 HORTICULTURAL. SOCIETY OF NEW YORE 


HERBACEOUS GROUNDS. HEMLOCK GROVE. 


Total Number of Total Number of 
Date Exposure Hours Exposure Hours 
IDEchat7 ator 24), OOO meee + 1.50 74 SPL 27) 48 
—2.25 O4 + 1.28 120 
DEC: A248 10 Slee, ae on ioseyarcee + 1.50 go + .90 65 
— .85 7 — .9O 103 
Dec. 38 sto: fan 7) 100%. s-- 5% + .80 68 se ED 40 
—2.10 100 +2.84 128 
Jane 7 tOCt4s 4 Sates eae + .80 140 ap oo 126 
— .60 28 — .40 42 
Jails Ast Oise enor ack eee SFieue 68 + .65 46 
—2.60 100 —2.70 122 
[eins At 6) FSi a Bla obossconbeanaae ne® 102 ae Se 42 
— .60 66 —1I.00 126 
etie2e Oe Med Aes Sees ae. oie: +2.25 20 Fg 
—4.00 148 —3.55 168 
Re rAGrLO BET a) 3)06 ecu e sis cere. Spade ae 
—4.30 —168 — 4.80 168 
ela h. sO oboe eee An tus cis ar a8) — 56 a. 420 a2 
—2.20 —II2 —2.10 136 
Ele Tis tO 25 eiays eae Gort Dis + .50 36 7 320 14 
—I.50 —I32 —3.00 —I54 
Rep e25 to MiVichird sero oe + 1.50 88 +1.20 76 
—1.20 — 8o —1I.50 — 92 
RHA ACO Saye, oye ee +1.80 102 + 1.20 108 
—1.70 — 56 —1.65 — 60 
IVichie SIAL Om LOr: fe rahe ees oer +2.40 149 _ +1.40 145 
— .30 — 19 — .20 — 23 
Wet ar bOe2s a0 2.2 ass +3.60 154 +2.70 149 
— .10 14 — .20 19 
Miche 25 to Apt “Tes sacc ao. +7.56 162 +2.65 I4I 
— .10 — 6 — .25 — 27 
ANDI ee (volutes Mae omer oee Ean Aare 4.70 168 3.41 168 


STIMULATION AND ACCOMMODATION. 


There yet remains to be considered the stimulative reac- 
tions and accommodations of the plant under changes in the en- 
vironmental forces which act upon it. Generally speaking, it 
may be said that sudden changes in the intensity with which a 
force acts upon a plant results in stimulation, and that gradual 
alterations are followed by accommodations, and that such ad- 
justments or adaptations may be produced by the one -continued 
uniform action of any external factor. 

A striking example of stimulation followed by accommoda- 
tion is offered by the sensitive plant, and the well-known re- 
sponse of this plant to a touch or blow consists in folding move- 
ments of its leaves and leaflets. In repeating the test of it, per- 
haps this blow may be given by a drop of falling water, or by a 


PacLORS -APFECTING SEASONAL ACTIVITIES. . 15 


slender pencil. Now place a healthy plant under a fine shower 
nozzle from which water not too cold will fall in thousands of 
repetitions upon the same leaves. The first of the mimic shower 
causes the leaves to undergo the characteristic movements. The 
steady, gentle tapping of the falling drops continues, however, 
and the leaves become so accustomed or accommodated to their 
shock that they no longer constitute a stimulus, with the result 
that in a few hours the leaves are fully expanded in the falling 
drops, the first touch of which caused a full and rapid closure 
of all of the leaves and leaflets. The accommodation is to fall- 
ing drops only, since if the leaves are struck with a rod, or ex- 
posed to the action of heat from a shielded burning match, closure 
follows. The test may be repeated by arranging a clockwork to 
cause a small rod to strike the leaves or stems at frequent inter- 
vals, when accommodation will follow in the same manner. This 
is one phase of accommodation. A second is one in which a 
force is slowly increased. Thus, suppose that instead of sud- 
denly exposing the plant to a shower of drops, we had placed it 
in a damp chamber and began spraying it from an atomizer in 
which the size of the particles of water was slowly increased un- 
til they became large raindrops. Treatment of this kind would 
be followed by no reaction movement, the protoplasm having 
ample opportunity to make the necessary adjustment to the 
size of the drops and the increased force of the blows. 
An even much more familiar illustration of stimulation is 
that offered by the practice of storing dormant bulbs and tubers 
at a low temperature, then bringing them into a warmer room 
for sprouting. The change in the temperature is the shock which 
awakens the resting plant in such operations, and the difference 
between the storage pit and the growing chamber may be so 
great that it should be made in two steps to avoid damage. On 
the other hand the beneficial effects of such stimulation may be 
readily appreciated when plants are stored at temperatures too 
high to secure this shock by the change, and it also accounts in 
part for the slow, feeble action of some species when kept at an 
equable temperature during the entire year. But this stimulus 
is not to be thought of as always a change from a low to a high 
temperature, for the reverse may have a like effect. Encelia 


16 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK 


farinosa is a desert shrub which has been introduced into the 
xero-montane plantation of the Desert Laboratory at 6,000 feet, 
being taken from a habitat at 2,500 feet and correspondingly 
warmer. It is a winter perennial, however, and its season of activ- 
ity lies within the cool season of February to April, at which time 
it goes into a resting condition. Now, if the roots are taken up at 
this time and carried up to the 6,000-foot level, the stimulus of 
change to the cooler temperature again causes it to awaken and 
put out a new set of shoots. Exact observations upon this stim- 
ulative reaction of any plant are possible, and many of the prac- 
tices of the gardener are the results of long practical experience 
upon the matter. An interesting set of data have recently been 
obtained by Dr. B. E. Livingston with respect to the change from 
the mfra-optimum to the optimum with regard to moisture from 
which it is seen that seeds of Cereus, Fouquieria, Phaseolus and 
Triticum, germinated when transferred from an air-dry condi- 
tion to soil containing 15% of water, /mpatiens in soil contain- 
ing 20 to 25%, Raphanus demanded 20%, and Trifolium 25%. 

Gradual changes in the temperature, or in any of the other 
agencies affecting plants, may allow the protoplasm to make such 
adjustments of the living matter that the cardinal points are 
much changed and a species may accommodate itself to condi- 
tions ordinarily unendurable. Experimentation in this phase 
of the subject has been carried on most with bacteria and the 
simpler fungi, and it has been found that these organisms are 
capable of making such slow changes as to be able to undergo 
temperatures, comparatively very low and very high. The facil- 
ity with which these organisms may be handled has also led to 
the result that they have been found to accommodate themselves 
to very great changes in the composition of the nutrient medium, 
and to endure the presence of poisonous substances, the concen- 
tration of which was increased very gradually. 

In all such cases the power of endurance of the plant to an 
excessive or defective action of any one force is very much modi- 
fied by the presence of or action of others. Thus, in the matter 
of the seeds, the endurance to extremes of temperatures is seen 
to depend directly upon the amount of moisture present. 

Again the time element or the rapidity with which the in- 


PaAclORS AFFECTING SEASONAL ACTIVITIES. 17 


tensity of external conditions is changed is a basal factor in all 
accommodation processes. As a plant accommodates itself to 
live at unwonted temperatures, or in unaccustomed soils, but 
little doubt exists that it undergoes changes in intricate struc- 
ture, which, however, are not always to be demonstrated. So 
long as the species remains under the new and strange conditions 
the acquired structure will be retained from generation to gen- 
eration, whether propagated by cuttings or seeds. If the species 
is returned to its original habitat or to the normal conditions in 
which it originally grew, the acquired structures may persist for 
a time, but in accordance with the power of accommodation 
which originally brought them into existence, they will disap- 
pear when the inducing factors are removed. 

The classical cultures of Bonnier made in the Alps and 
Pyrenees, twenty years ago, furnish us with the bulk of the sys- 
tematic information available as to the influence of elevation on 
plants. From these it was seen that plants taken from lower to 
higher altitudes, up to about 7,000 feet, and not exceeding the 
optumum of the species, developed shorter internodes, the subter- 
ranean parts of the plant were relatively much larger, the leaves 
were smaller, more deeply colored, and the flowers were also 
more vividly tinted. 

No better illustration of the changes in structure shown by 
plants, when accommodating themselves to habitats presenting 
strange external conditions, can be found than those found in the 
American water-cress (Roripa Americana), with which some ex- 
tensive experimentation has been carried on. Originally taken 
from the muddy bottom of Lake Champlain, where it grows in 
water at a depth of 1 to 3 feet, it had been gradually accommo- 
dated to the propagating bed, the cold frame, and the hothouse in 
the New York Botanical Garden, from whence it has been suc- 
cessfully transferred to the Laboratory at Cinchona, Jamaica, and 
to the montane plantation of the Desert Laboratory in the Santa 
Catalina Mountains in Arizona. “During this dissemination it 
has substituted radish-like structures for the bunch of fibrous 
roots characteristic of it, and developed new forms of leaves and 
stems, while throughout it shows tissues and arrangements of 
tissues wholly unfamiliar to it; all of which has been brought 


YORK. 


NEW 


HORTICULTURAL ~SOCIBIN= “Or. 


18 


: “euozliy ‘sulejunoy, eulyejey ejues 
jo adojs Utsy Nos Uo ‘Jaa} OOI‘g je ‘stadrunf pue suourd’ Suowre!A10jeIOGe-]"j19S9q JO UOZe}UR]d aUuLJUOUI-O19x jo uoneo20 7 


FACTORS AFFECTING SEASONAL ACTIVITIES. 19 


about with comparative rapidity in five years. On the other 
hand, Lysimachia terrestris has been transferred from a terres- 
trial habitat to an aquatic, with similar sweeping changes by way 
of accommodation in even a briefer period. 

So important are the possible results in this phase of experi- 
mentation held to be that the Department of Botanical Research 
of the Carnegie Institution of Washington has established plan- 
tations, under permits from the management of the National 
Forest, at 8,000 feet, in a moist alpine climate, and at 6,000 feet 
in an arid situation in the Santa Catalina Mountains, in connec- 
tion with a small experimental farm, at 2,200 feet in the alluvial 
irrigated soil of the Santa Cruz Valley near Tucson. Without 
going into detail at this time it may be stated in general that the 
experimental work carried on at these plantations involves an in- 
terchange of plants among the three stations, and also introduc- 
tions from various locations in different parts of the world. In 

“the two seasons that have elapsed since organized, ample reward 
has been obtained for the effort expended. 

The methods and the results discussed above refer wholly 
to adaptive or responsive changes made by the bodies of plants 
subjected to any given environment, and forming accommoda- 
tions to it. These alterations are of the greatest importance in 
the extension of the range of any plant, and by a study of them 
the accommodation response may excite the plant to increase the 
very feature of its structure of economic importance, and sup- 
press those useless or harmful in its application to our needs. 

Still a last possibility is to be taken into account in the 
great changes to which plants are subjected in acclimatization 
work. I have recently demonstrated that external agencies may 
be made to act upon the germ cells of plants in such manner that 
changes take place which are expressed in the progeny, and are 
heritable from generation to generation, constituting in fact the 
origin of new forms having the standing of species. The experi- 
mental methods used are fairly simulated by natural forces 
Likewise Dr. Tower has been able to induce similar changes in 
the germ cells of beetles by the application of such stimuli 
as variations in temperature and moisture. It is to be said, 
therefore, that in taking plants from their native habitats to the 


HORTICULTURAL: “SOCIETY, (OF NEW YO hire 


Montane plantation of Desert Laboratory among spruces and poplars, at 8,000 feet, 
northern slope, Santa Catalina Mountains, Arizona. 


PACTORS AFFECTING SEASONAL ACTIVITIES. ai 


uttermost extent of their possible ranges, we possibly subject 
them to forces which may be a most potent factor in the origina- 
tion of new qualities and new lines of heredity. 


GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. 


A more direct application of the ideas elaborated in the 
foregoing may be possible by a brief restatement of the more im- 
portant generalizations. 

The forces or factors affecting vegetation are simple phys- 
ical properties capable of ready apprehension and easy measure- 
ment. Much is known as to the mode of response, reaction, ac- 
commodation and adaptation to such single factors or to a com- 
plex of them, and further experimentation upon the problems in- 
volved may be readily organized. 

The thermal requirements of two plants, as indicated by the 
records of a season, have been tested, and with reasonable allow- 
ance for variation may be taken as characteristic of the forms in 
question. The method used consists in the measurement of the 
number of hour-degrees exposure, beginning with the winter sol- 
stice or with the germination of seeds. 

The difference between localities only a few hundred feet 
apart at the same altitude may be sufficiently large to make exist- 
ence in one impossible to a form which may find its optimum in 
the other. 

The stimulative reactions of plants to sudden changes in > 
environmental conditions form the basis of many important gar- 
dening practices. On the other hand the capacity of the plant 
for accommodation to conditions widely different from the aver- 
age, following gradual changes, is very great and is perhaps the 
most important phase of the subject with respect to acclimatiza- 
tion. The more extensive studies in this problem have been con- 
cerned with the northward extension of the cultivation of fruits” 
and cereals, and comparative cultures at low and high altitudes. 

It is to be recalled in closing that but few plants occupy 
more than a fraction of all of the possible habitats by non-con- 
scious distributional movements, and that the intelligent consid- 
eration of the factors of climate and a development of cultural 
methods may most readily secure the economic dissemination of 


22 HORTICULTURAL . SOCIETY GF) NEW] MORI 


plants from the localities in which they do grow to the full range 
of habitats where they may grow. Not only may species be car- 
ried and established in numberless new localities offering condi- 
tions equivalent to their natural habitats, but a study of the ad- 
justments and accommodations of which the plant is capable en- 
ables or allows it to be introduced into unfamiliar conditions, 
under which the structural response may take on qualities more 
valuable than those usually shown by it. 


The President—Dr. MacDougal has given us in that portion of his 
paper which he has read, very valuable points, and the paper and the 
subject is now before the meeting for discussion; I am sure that Dr. 
MacDougal would be glad to answer any questions that may be asked 
him upon any point that has been presented. 

Does anyone desire to make any remark upon this subject just pre- 
sented by Dr. MacDougal? 

A. L. Willis—What is the range, Dr. MacDougal? 

Dr. MacDougal—it covers the common prickly pear of this region 
—and then we have the Indian turnip and the columbine and several others 
that are taken from Northern Lake Champlain and the climate in the 
Botanical Garden—which has now had its range extended until this plant 
is growing in the desert laboratory, at 6,100 feet, and also in the soil at 
8,000 feet. 

I will take the liberty of saying that this produced the widest 
adaptation which has yet been recorded concerning any plant. 

Mr. Southwick—I would like to ask the widest range of temperature, 
the widest variation? 

Dr. MacDougal—We have the walnut trees on the top and on the 
bottom, looking very different. I don’t know whether they really range 
up and down.the whole mountain or not. Some one has submitted speci- 
mens of these walnut trees to Dr. Britton, and he thinks they are in- 
separable. Now, here is a vertical range of a mile. I do not believe the 
juniper would cover much over a vertical mile. I know some other plants 
which will cover this. I think there is one which has a range greater than 
this. This is a plant that grows at sea level in Mexico, on the west 
coast, in latitude about 27, and then it goes northward seven or eight 
hundred miles and climbs up to four thousand feet. I believe that is the 
widest range of anything I know of. 

On the wideness of range, I don’t believe any study has yet been 
made of the botanical features or capacity on which this wideness of range 
rests. I don’t know what there is about the juniper that makes it do 
this, or the walnut tree, either. 

Mr. Southwick—How about the birches? 


BPACTORS AFFECTING SEASONAL ‘ACTIVITIES. 23 


Dr. MacDougal—The birches are too much mixed up, sir, for me to 
follow them. I don’t want to venture anything on the birches. 

Mr. Southwick—I would like to ask you another question. Do you 
believe there are some ripening processes? May it not be the case, Dr. 
MacDougal, that there may be a ripening process in the seed which is 
to be fulfilled before the seed will germinate? You know that we find 
that the Solanum tuberosum has to have a ripening process before it will 
germinate? In other words, it will not germinate until spring. Is it 
not possible that the seed will have some ripening processes, changing 
sugar into starch and starch into sugar before it will germinate? 

Dr. MacDougal—This is a very elusive subject. In my paper, I 
say that these seeds were made to germinate seven or eight months ahead 
of the time when they normally would germinate. That is to say, Pro- 
fessor Southwick, the seeds are made to germinate when they would not 
ordinarily until next February, so if there is a ripening process there, 
it is finished very quickly. That matter of the ripening period is some- 
thing I have never been able to get any information on that is at all 
satisfactory. 

Mr. Southwick—Is it true about Solanum tuberosum? 

Dr. MacDougal—lIt is true that some will germinate in September 
and some will not until later. That whole matter is a very elusive one, 
and I have never been able to make a very satisfactory statement of it, 
to myself, or anybody else. 

Dr. Evans — In some experiments with the nightshades, I have been 
able to germinate the seed at once in the fall, and raise them during the 
winter in the greenhouse. The peculiar thing about it was that the 
plants were set all winter and would not do anything in the way of 
growth until about the normal time in the spring. A most remarkable 
case this was. I was never able to force them. They simply stood dor- 
mant after the seed had made a few leaves, and with the gooseberry 
and currant (the wild species) I found several cases where they would 
not force during the winter. If the buds were just about open, they 
would stay until about the normal time in the spring. Last fall up in 
Lapland where I went for the Department of Agriculture, I noticed a 
most remarkable situation in the experiments going on at Lulea. That 
is up in the extreme northern part of Sweden, the Gulf of Bothnia. 
They have an experiment station there for the purpose of hardening 
plants, making them more resistant to cold. Two ice houses were con- 
structed, one a cooling house and one a freezing house. They had them 
constructed so they could hold the temperature to a fraction of a degree, 
if necessary. They had some barley and some cereals in boxes in the 
earth, and at different times they were submitted first to a cooling proc- 
ess and then to a freezing process, imitating untimely freezing in the 
spring and fall. The trouble in that province is that barley especially 
being the main cereal up there, was apt to freeze out about once in II 
years. I found them laboriously selecting the plant that had grown under 


24 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY ‘OF NEW YORK 


those extraordinary conditions, to be frozen in the midst of a full vegeta- 
tive growth, and I ppese the idea was to force the germination. 


I am just dering whether the reverse could not be done: To 
put the plant : an extremely hot climate for a time to see if they 
could not fore dlant to adapt itself to a hotter place. 

Mr. Maes We have growing at the experiment farm now, quite 


a number of Solanum tuberosum. It is ripening in 62 or 63 degrees in 
Canada. It seems to me a very interesting fact, because it shows the 
wide range of the potato. We usually consider the potato, so far as the 
ripening of the seed is concerned, as having a very wide range, but this, 
as you know, is a very good many miles north of your latitude, 62, and 
I think my father was up there in ’72 and he noticed the great abundance 
of potatoes the next spring, after wintering over in the ground, and I 
feel certain that the seed must have remained over, instead of the tubers, 
because the seed germinated with a very high percentage of vitality, and 
I think the point might be very interesting in this discussion. 

Dr. Hansen—I was much surprised last fall to see the potato culti- 
vated a good way north of the Arctic Circle in Europe. The potato has 
come from Archangel on the Arctic Ocean, down to the experiment 
station in Northern Norway, and up nearly to the Circle, and they were 
raising it in that locality. They were rather small, but they matured in 
that latitude. That shows there has been a change in its early maturity. 

Mr. Evans—In connection with our experiment up in Alaska, I 
want to say just a word. We have a regular experiment station, of which 
you will probably hear later on. But speaking of the potato; there is a 
station up there which is about 60 miles north of the Arctic Circle, and 
the man there sent me last summer two potatoes that weighed nearly 34 
of a lb. each, well matured, and as a curiosity he saved a number of 
seed balls with fully developed seeds, and they were sent early in the 
season, in August, but they were not yet ripe. Up in Alaska, the potato 
has been grown for the last three years to my knowledge successfully as 
a garden vegetable. 

The President—It has been a surprise to me to see the extreme 
northerly latitude in which the potato grows. I am quite sure I have 
seen it a hundred miles north of the Arctic Circle. I don’t know about 
the maturing of the seeds but the tubers matured sufficiently to grow 
from the eyes without any apparent difficulty. Indeed, they were not 
able to tell me when the varieties they were growing were introduced 
into that region, showing for a long period they had continued to grow 
from the tuber. I was not able to get any information in regard to the 
seed. I would state also, though it has no specific value, that the potatoes 
grown there are of very excellent quality. 

We will now hear a paper on “Air Drainage as Affecting the Accli- 
matization of Plants,” by Ernst A. Bessey, Subtropical Laboratory, Miami, 
Florida. 


The following paper was read by Ernst A. Bes 


Air Drainage as Affecting the Acclimatization 
of, Plants: 


By Ernst A. BESSEy, 
Pathologist in Charge of the Subtropical Laboratory and Garden, 
Miami, Florida. 

To those living in Florida is offered a most excellent op- 
portunity to see extensive experiments in acclimatization and 
to note some of the factors influencing their success or failure. 
Besides the numerous importations in recent years by the United 
States Department of Agriculture, there have been ever since 
the settlement of the State, innumerable attempts to establish 
plants from all parts of the world, from both temperate and 
tropical regions. It was to be expected that only a small per- 
centage of these attempts would result in success on account of 
the many factors coming into play. For instance, the question 
of soil has probably accounted for more failures than any other 
factor except minimum temperature. In almost the entire State 
of Florida the soil is to a very large extent composed of sand, 
in many places very deep and with no subsoil. In these sandy 
soils the large annual rainfall (50 to 60 inches) is counter- 
balanced by the porosity of the soil, which often causes the death 
of a plant from lack of water, while in the heavier soils of Cali- 
fornia the same plant may thrive with a far smaller annual 
precipitation. The lack of plant food in this sand must also 
be taken into consideration, as it is of great importance, it being 
impossible to replace it satisfactorily in all cases by the use of 
fertilizers. 

Another very important factor is the fact that in Florida 
the chief period of rainfall is in the warmer months. This is 
distinctly advantageous in most cases, being in direct contrast 
to the conditions in California, where the rainy season is in 
winter. 


26 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW. YORK. 


The most important factor of all, however, is the question 
of temperature, especially that of the minimum winter tempera- 
ture. Two classes of plants can be distinguished here, viz., 
those that are killed by a more or less long-continued period of 
cool nights which do not reach the freezing temperature, and 
those which endure such periods without injury but which are 
killed or seriously injured by a comparatively slight and short 
drop in temperature below the freezing point. It is of certain 
factors affecting the acclimatization of this latter group that I 
wish to speak. 

It has been long recognized that the slope of the land has a 
great bearing upon the liability to injury of fruit trees from late 
spring frosts. So, for example, where danger of frost injury 
to peaches is to be feared, the orchards are planted on hill slopes 
or near steep inclines which will drain away the cold air. Dur- 
ing the winter this air drainage is of no avail since the whole 
mass of air is cold. In the spring and fall, however, when the 
general mass of air is warm the air next to the ground is cooled 
by radiation, forming a cold layer of limited depth. 

In southern Florida, e. g., in the vicinity of Miami, the tem- 
perature of the mass of air never falls low enough to cause death 
of plants by freezing. By radiation, however, the layers of air 
next to the ground sometimes become colder than freezing tem- 
perature. It is under such conditions that air drainage becomes 
a factor in acclimatization. If the general air mass should 
occasionally become cooled below freezing temperature, those 
plants mentioned above which are subject to injury by such 
temperature would be killed out, regardless of location, but since, 
at Miami, the cold air is only of limited depth the location deter- 
mines whether the plant is killed or not. | 

The principles stated above were clearly demonstrated at 
Miami last winter (1906). During the daytime of December 
23d, 24th and 25th, there was a heavy, cool northwest wind, but 
the sun shone brightly and the temperature remained about 50°F. 
At sunset each of these days the wind ceased almost absolutely, 
and the temperature began to fall at once. On the morning 
of the 24th, at the Subtropical Laboratory building about seven 
feet from the ground, the temperature was 32° F.; on the 25th, 


AIR DRAINAGE AS AFFECTING ACCLIMATIZATION. 27 


28°, and on the 26th, 26°. Immediately after sunrise the tem- 
perature rose at once to above freezing. This lowering of tem- 
perature was not due to the down-flow of cold air from above but 
solely to radiation from the soil and other objects. This was dem- 
onstrated by the fact that a lath roof which could not have pre- 
vented the inflow of cold air from above, for the spaces between 
the laths were the width of the laths themselves, prevented 
radiation to such a degree that pineapples under this roof suf- 
fered no injury, while where the roof was lacking, owing to 
previous destruction by wind, the plants were badly injured, 
although no lateral barrier was between the plants. 

A few days after the freeze I drove all around the country 
about Miami making observations upon the effects of the cold. 
It was at once apparent that the layer of air causing the dam- 
age was not deep. In few places did any injury appear more 
than four feet above the ground, while in many spots the injury 
was confined to within a foot or two. At the Subtropical Gar- 
den a number of two-year-old mango and avocado trees were 
killed. For several days, in one case for several weeks, the 
tops remained green, then suddenly died. I found that for a 
distance of six inches to a foot from the ground the bark and 
young wood had been killed. The same observation was made 
on a number of tamarind, india rubber and other trees set out 
along the avenue for ornamental purposes. 

In several places the injury to the foliage of tender plants 
was noticeable from the ground-up to a certain level, the line of 
demarcation between killed and uninjured foliage being very 
distinct and perfectly level. In one place, especially, where a 
grove of avocado trees stood in a kind of basin about one hun- 
dred yards across, the injury was not apparent to the trees at the 
margin but reached higher and higher the further one advanced 
into the center of the basin, while at the other side the injury 
again became less and less. Sighting across it was clear that a 
lake of cold air, level at the top, had occupied this basin. 

In marked contrast to such places as this was the absolute 
lack of injury where the slope of the surface was such as to 
permit the cold air to flow off. Thus at Cocoanut Grove, about 
four miles south of Miami, the land near the bay is sloping 


28 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF” NEW” YORK 


while half a mile or so inland it becomes level. On this level 
portion the injury from cold was very severe, but on the slop- 
ing portion it was entirely wanting except where obstacles inter- 
vened to hold back the cold air. So, for example, one rather 
steep slope showed no signs of injury whatever, except near 
the base, where a close stone wall about five feet high held back 
the cold air, acting as a dam and forming, as it were, a little 
pond. The plants standing in this pond of cold air were seri- 
ously injured. That the general lack of injury was not due to 
the proximity of the bay is shown by the fact that at the Sub- 
tropical Laboratory and Garden, right by the water, but level 
and with the outflow of cold air hindered by a fence and trees, 
the injury was exceedingly severe. 


To summarize: air drainage is an important factor in the 
acclimatization of plants in those regions where the general mass 
of air is not cold but the cold occurs in a rather shallow layer 
of air. Under such conditions with proper drainage the cold 
air flows off, preventing injury. 


The President—Miami is an extremely interesting place for a study 
of this kind, and I think there is real value in the paper that has been 
presented. Does any one wish to make any remarks upon it? 

Dr. MacDougal—This is an interesting paper. Dr. Bessey brings 
to mind some very accurate experiments made in the same place some 
fourteen or fifteen years ago by Dr. Roberts at the time of the great 
destruction of citrus fruits. These experiments were published in 1893. 
This is a subject that I have been interested in and have published a 
little on, the last being in 1899, in which I find this inversion of tempera- 
ture a very important factor in the distribution of wild plants. I find 
it reaches its greatest accentuation in regions of low humidity and not 
in arid regions. I have published some observations in a valley where it 
drains from a mountain range 13,000 feet high. Now, a thermograph at 
this place, and the observations and the result show the minimum record 
at times often varies as much as fifteen or twenty degrees, so it may be 
twenty degrees below freezing and up on the hill a few hundred feet 
above, it may be twenty degrees warmer. Now, these inversions of tem- 
perature have the effect of carrying the distribution of wild plants south- 
ward, that is to say, downward, down the mountain slopes, in these ravines 
where the air is cold at night and the plant runs down where it makes 
existence possible there. This air drainage is accountable for a great 
many so-called anomalies. That is, you may have a plant which belongs 
on the top of a mountain, and find it down some ravine where the cold 
air flows. 


AIR DRAINAGE AS AFFECTING ACCLIMATIZATION. 29 


Mr. Macoun—I would like to give some observations as to the 
death of plants in cold weather. 


In the Province of Behring in Canada, and also in the United States, 
I believe one of the chief causes of death in fruit trees is the killing of 
the trunks in winter, which we believe is due to the constant flow of cold 
air during the winter months. We had a very good example of it in 
Ottawa, which as you know is not in Behring Province, last year, when 
we had a kind of winter killing which we have never had before in 
twenty years’ experience. I believe this coincides in a very large extent, 
with the winter in Behring Province. We had a very serious kind of 
winter, with greater coid than usual. There had been a steady flow of air 
all through the winter; that is much more than the average. The result 
was a large number of apple trees which were killed in the trunk for 
about two feet entirely around the trunk. Now, as a rule, the form of 
winter killing in the winter that is known as sun killing usually occurs 
on the south and southwest side of the tree, and is due largely, we 
believe, to the sudden changes of temperature, thawing and freezing, but 
in these cases, I suppose, there were one hundred or one hundred and 
fifty trees destroyed in that way, killing right around the trunk. The 
bark and the trunk were destroyed. The trees leaved out. as usual. 
Some are living yet, but they gradually die and those that did not die 
last year will die next year. I just wanted to give this example and give 
one in Behring Province, where the fruit trees are killed by too much 
air drainage. 

Mr. Southwick—I think it is a well-known fact that the lowering 
of the temperature of the soil has the same effect upon plants in ap- 
pearance at least as frost. You take the eucalyptus plant. If you have 
a very wet cold soil the plants die. That is the result of my experi- 
ment in Central Park now. They were planted near the house in the 
shade and the moisture and the lowering of the temperature has caused 
them all to die and I think it is a well-known fact and a very important 
fact, every act of the lowering of the temperature and the excessive 
moisture deprives the plant’s leaves of the nourishment they require, and 
they die. I think Dr. MacDougal can say a few words about that. 


Dr. MacDougal—It is true in regard to the eucalyptus plant that 
the fatal cold in some places is between 36 and 38 degrees Fahrenheit. 
That is to say, they freeze to death before the freezing point is reached. 
They are not killed by cold, so that this thing you speak of is probably 
a combination. 

Mr. Macoun—I would just like to say, as I mentioned before, that 
we believe—although I haven’t any data to prove it—that the driest part 
of a tree is the trunk. Perhaps Dr. Hansen has some information on 
that point. We know that near the tip there is more moisture than any 
other part, but I believe the driest part of a tree is the trunk and this 
constant flow of air in the winter dries out the trunk so that there is 


30 HORTICULTURAL ‘SOCIETY GF NEW “YORK 


not sufficient moisture to stand the strain, and the,result is that the tree 
dies from lack of moisture, and the bark is killed by the lack of moisture. 

T. V. Munson—i think the name of air drainage, in some places 
is not quite the right name. We have in connection with drainage a 
down flow in my region, located on the south side of Red River, located 
some one hundred and seventy to two hundred feet above the bed of the © 
river. I have known several times that we have succeeded splendidly with 
certain varieties of fruit, peaches, for example, while those on the opposite 
side of the river, the north side of the river, Red River running in that 
region from west to east, that we had full crops while on the other side 
they had none. There seemed on those occasions, a very slow movement 
of the atmosphere from north to south, what we would term a “freezing 
norther.” It seems that in that case the valley of the river is quite broad 
and heavily forested, so that the heat that had accumulated in the valley 
during the day gradually flowed upward over the bluff on the south side 
of the river and kept the trees at such a temperature that they were 
saved, while on the north side they were lost, but in other cases where 
we have had still freezes, that is, where the air became apparently a dead 
freeze, great destruction was the result. JI have seen that illustrated in 
my own old place, north of Denison. The elevation of the hill was about 
fifty feet above that of the little creek where I reside, and frequently plants 
were killed in the bottom, the same varieties that were not hurt at 
the top of the hill, and I observed that the difference in temperature was 
between 8 and 10 degrees. Now, in that case, and in some other cases, 
the drainage seems to be a wedge of cold air settling gradually down into 
the hollow, and displacing the warm air there, and it flows up over the 
hill. That is the character of the drainage, it seems to me. I remember 
very distinctly, four or five years ago quite a severe wet freeze came when 
the grapes had pushed from 6 to 8 inch shoots, nearly at the blooming 
period, and my present place lay pretty well on the little plateau between 
Red River and the Creek south, and on the upper portion of that grapes 
were not damaged, at all. We made a good crop. I noticed at the lower 
portion of our place, probably fifty foot below the upper portion, frost 
began and from there on for fifty miles, all vineyards in the valley were 
killed. There were no grapes at all, except on the scattered secondary 
buds pushed forward, and in this case it would seem that there was a lake 
of cold air below the freezing temperature—to be considered a lake, al- 
though it may have had a slow motion down the valley and creek. The 
creek is quite crooked and pretty well forested, so there would be very 
little motion, but in that regard, it was like a lake, like the lake mentioned 
—and below the line there was no damage. 

The President—I would like to mention one or two illustrations, of 
the economic influences and values resulting from this question of this 
fact of air drainage. 

In the north of this latitude, the peach crop is somewhat uncertain, 
as a rule, taking it over the country generally. It is a fact in this whole 


AIR DRAINAGE AS AFFECTING ACCLIMATIZATION. 31 


country of northern New York, that when a peach orchard is planted 
on a slope of a hill where there is active air drainage, the crop is much 
more reliable. Then there is another thing in connection with this that 
if, in this cold north country of ours, the peach orchard is planted on 
the northern slope of a hill, it is vastly more reliable than when planted 
cn the southern slope of a hill, if it has active air drainage. Of course, 
there is another problem involved in this, and all these problems are very 
complex, gentlemen. We must not draw our conclusions from insufficient 
data, because Nature’s problems are so complex. The northern slope is 
preferable to the southern, because there is greater uniformity of tem- 
perature during the late winter and early spring, and with the southern 
exposure, the direct rays of the sun to the square foot are very great, 
and you have the soil thawing out when the temperature rises, whereas 
on the same hill, an eighth of a mile away on the northern slope, there 
is no change perceptible whatever. There is no slope and the sun’s rays 
impinging on the square foot are not more than one-quarter, and indeed, 
hardly as much. Of course, if the hill is steep enough, there is no 
impinging of the rays at all, and the only heat you get is the diffused 
heat of the atmosphere. Now, in regard to this air drainage, there are 
great results from it. The greatest fruit country in the United States, 
and probably in North America, with the exception of the citrus counties 
in Florida, is Ulster County, just north of us. Peaches were not grown 
there thirty or forty years ago because they were utterly unreliable. 
‘They were planted in sheltered valleys where the northerly winds would 
not strike them. They supposed that the home of the peach was in 
Persia in a warm climate, and so they thought the peach trees should be 
planted in a warm valley. The fruit culturists in Ulster County were 
advised to plant their peach orchards on the northern slopes. The result 
was that the finest peaches in the city market to-day are the peaches grown 
in that county. If you go down to the great Washington Market of this 
city where the fruit is received, and you see any specially fine fruit to-day, 
and ask where it comes from, the chances are it is Ulster County, but it 
may be Northern New York, but it is grown on the hillside where there 
is the most complete air-drainage, and on the northern slope, because 
the fluctuations of temperature are much less there than on the southern 
slope. 

You know the native hemlock is a northern tree. I have often 
said that it is the most beautiful evergreen on this earth. I have never 
seen anything to qualify me in that statement, that the hemlock is the 
most beautiful evergreen to be found. It is a northern tree. It is said 
that the most southera hemlock grove is the one which is growing in 
Bronx Park, but you know the hemlock is found far south on the 
Carolinas—perhaps in Georgia as well. I don’t know as to that. It may 
be in Georgia around on the mountain ranges. I happened to be in- 
terested in an extensive tract of land in Virginia, including a considerable 
portion, some forty or fifty thousand acres, on the Shenandoah Mountain. 


32 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW “YORw 


We are lumbering to-day the northern hemlock on the slopes ‘of the 
Shenandoah Mountain, where they exist, because of the air drainage, in 
my opinion, from the mountain range, coming down the slopes, as it is 
easy to see by the configuration of the mountain that the air comes down. 
Hemlocks are found away down the valley, where but for this air drainage, 
1 believe there would not be a hemlock within a hundred miles, and here 
they are, magnificent great specimens, with trunks six feet in diameter, 
and making marketable timber 80 or I00 feet up the trunk. They are 
there, and the only way you can account for their being there is the air 
drainage from the mountain coming down into the warmer valleys bring- 
ing with it the possibilities of a vegetation of another latitude altogether. 

Mr. Southwick—I think the factor omitted in what you just said 
is this: 

I was brought up in Greene County, New York, and raised peaches 
there and farmed it until I was twenty years old. I found by planting 
our peach orchards on the north side of the hill, they were retarded in 
their growth in spring, and to add to that, we tamped the snow around 
the trees and kept them back a while longer, and we were free from 
having the buds frozen, and from them we had some beautiful peaches. 
We kept the ground there cold and in this way the trees were kept back. 
1 think that is a very important factor. 

Dr. Hansen—I would like to quote an experiment. I do not think 
that the last speaker did keep back the buds of a tree. I would not like 
to have that point passed without stating that the result of experiment 
has shown that such a process will not keep back the blossoms of any 
tree. 

Mr. Macoun—We have tried many careful experiments of tamping 
the snow about the trees, and it does not keep back the buds at all. 

The President—I will supplement my remarks by saying I have a 
peach orchard about 35 miles north of the city on a slope of a hill per- 
haps nine hundred feet above the level of the sea, and that orchard has 
not failed in giving a most satisfactory crop in fifteen years. That illus- 
trates two things: first, it illustrates the vigor of the tree, that the peach 
orchard should continue for fifteen years in a*good condition. Secondly, 
it also illustrates the principle I have been speaking of, that it is usually 
uniform; whereas, in the whole region around in the valley, they have 
not had in this fifteen years this peach orchard has been fruiting, without 
any exception—they have not had a peach crop in more than a third 
of the time. I would say one thing further in regard to this particular 
locality, an elevation of 900 feet, a northern slope where the sun does not 
strike in winter, and where there is perfect air drainage. In my boy- 
hood I used to go up to this point, and there was the greatest peach tree 
I had ever seen. Its trunk was 22 inches in diameter and I found by 
consulting the old people, that the age of that tree was over seventy 
years. A peach tree in this latitude seventy years old, with a trunk 22 
inches in diameter! The property was not then in possession of my 


AIR DRAINAGE AS AFFECTING ACCLIMATIZATION. 33 


family, but the old owner of the land used to say that he would go up 
there and he would think that perhaps there would be a bushel of peaches 
on that tree and he would pick them and find ten bushels on one peach 
tree. I do not think it was the soil. I think it was simply the situation 
that caused the whole result. 

Mr. Munson—Just one word in order that the example I propose 
may not be misconstrued. The slope of the Gulf from the north side 
extends through several miles very gradually up and down over small 
hills and valleys, and on the southern side likewise, so that the killing 
occurred entirely over the territory north for several miles, while for 
several miles each side of the river, we had abundant peach orchards. 
This could not be explained by the southern exposure of hillsides, and 
must be accounted for by some other theory, and the only theory that 
they could possibly think of was the slope to the southern side, and the 
heat in the valley that gradually drifted southward in that case. Now, 
as to drainage, the idea has been advanced that the drainage about a 
mountain comes from the top down the side of a mountain. I am in- 
clined to take issue with that view. The flow is not steadily downward 
next to the earth from a mountain. It is upward. ‘There is a high swift 
current of air passing over the top of a mountain. If you will observe 
over any ridge over which the wind flows in snow-time, the wind blows 
over the top, and you will find a counter-current coming up and you 
will find a hollow place. The current comes over it and hits the ground 
beyond and banks the snow up and there will be a hollow behind it. 
So it is with the circulation about a mountain; the air passes over it, the 
warm air from below comes up the opposite side of the mountain, and 
that cold air takes its place beyond, and you will find that the freezing 
is heaviest and begins first in the centre of the valley on a still night. 
This wedge of cold air from above settles down, and the warm air fol- 
lows the hillside and flows upward. You build a fire somewhere near 
a large tree, and you will find that the flames, instead of going up, will 
seek the side of a tree and will go up the tree, and so the hill has the 
same power of furnishing a sort of back for the air to creep up while the 
cold currents drop beyond. 

Mr. Macoun—I think that Mr. Munson is confusing two things, the 
movement of winds and the gravity falling of cold air. When we speak 
of air drainage, and the inversion of temperature, we consider the air 
resting on a plane as absolutely still. Therefore, what he says about 
air currents across the top of mountains has nothing to do with it. When 
air gets cooler it drops, and if you cool it on the top of a mountain, it of 
course, flows down the slopes. In my work on the Rocky Mountains, I had 
always found that if there are any mosquitos, it is advantageous to camp 
in one of these cold-air spots, as it drives the mosquitos away, and so 
our camp is always at the mouth of a cafion, leading up to a mountain, 
knowing it will not be salubrious for the mosquitos. This matter of in- 
version of temperature is a matter that has been studied by thermometers 


34 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 


and instruments of all kinds, and I am quite astonished to have this con- 
clusion of Mr. Munson’s quite contrary to our observations, and I think 
his statement is due to the fact that he is confusing wind action with the 
actual settling of cold air. 

The President—I think that the difference in the two opinions comes 
from these facts: Mr. Munson comes from Texas. The cold weather 
they have there comes from the north. They do not have any fall, so 
far as I have found out, in Texas, although I have not been there the 
year around. Our temperature here falls the most when there is no wind, 
and that is where you have the air drainage. Buds of our fruit trees are 
killed on still nights, not on windy nights. They are killed when it is 
a perfectly still night, when there is no movement of atmosphere. I 
think here you have the explanation of the difference. I have had ex- 
perience in the Gulf and in Mexico, myself. 

Mr. Munson—Just a question to Dr. MacDougal: In driving across 
the plains in Nebraska and the West, hundreds of times I have ex- 
perienced this, that we would come to a ravine that would be several 
miles in length, having a very little down flow, and beyond as we began 
driving down into that ravine, we felt a body of cold air, and felt quite 
chilly, while it was quite comfortable on top. On very still evenings 
when we drive through it, we feel those conditions. How do you ex- 
plain that? 

Dr. MacDougai—I think it is a splendid explanation of my theory, 
and I am glad to get it. Just imagine you had a fine mist of rain which 
is heavier than air, poured on the ground. It naturally seeks the lowest 
places, doesn’t it? 

Mr. Munson—1 would like to know where cold air comes from? 

Dr. MacDougal—lIt is cooled all over the surface of the ground and 
flows to the lowest places. 

The President—We do not think of cold air coming from high 
elevations and coming down somewhere. The effect of cold air comes 
from radiation all over, and it runs like water, and as that water that 
falls upon the ground runs down into the ground, so this little stream of 
cold air runs down the valley. 

Dr. MacDougal—It is more accentuated, of course. 

Mr. Munson—Our thermometer all along the surface of the ground 
and up on the hill does not show that temperature which you should get 
on the bottom. 

Dr. MacDougal—There is not enough of it there. Just as soon as 
it is cooled, it begins to move. The moment you have a particle of air 
that is colder than any particle next to it, it begins to move, so you have 
on this hill slope particles of cool air that begin to move down into the 
hollow. You do not have a lake on the side of a hill; you have a lake 
falling and running down in a thin sheet. 

The President—lf your thermometer was on a slope a foot above 
the ground, it would not be in the stream of cold air at all. If your 


AIR DRAINAGE AS AFFECTING ACCLIMATIZATION. 35 


thermometer was exactly on the flowing line, it would give it, but really 
there is not enough of it. There would be radiation enough from the 
ground so perhaps you would not get any. 

Mr. Munson—Has any downflowing current been discovered near 
the ground? 

Dr. MacDougal—I don’t know how we are going to escape it. It 
has been a matter of observation with me. I am using the mountain in 
my illustration, because here we have a thing that is most accentuated. 
Take this cafion situation. The wind there becomes so strong as to 
become actually unpleasant, and in the autumn or in the spring, much 
of the time we find the temperature is too uncertain for comfort. I find 
the Indian, and next to the Indian, the prospector, and the man who is 
out of doors, avoids these cafions and keeps on the cooler ridges where he 
is not bothered at all. This movement is reversed during the day. You 
have the upflow during the day and the downflow during the night. 

Dr. Gager—May I say a word in response to a request for a specific 
instance of the observation of such an occurrence? The matter has 
been very thoroughly worked out on Cayuga Lake, by the observations 
of Cornell University, and the result has been published as to this down- 
flow of cold air. 

A recess was here taken until two in the afternoon. 


First SESSION—AFTERNOON. 


The President—The time for our Afternoon Session has arrived. 
We will have a paper on “The Real Factors in Acclimatization,” by Frede- 
ric E. Clements, University of Nebraska. In the absence of Mr. Clements, 
Dr. MacDougal will read the paper. 


The following paper, by Frederic E. Clements, was read by D. T. 
MacDougal : 


The Real Factors in Acclimatization. 


By FrepEeriIc E. CLEMENTS, 
Department of Botany, University of Michigan. 

The exact study of plant environments by means of instru- 
ments, which has been carried on in the Colorado mountains 
for the past ten years, has thrown light upon a number of cur- 
rent ideas as to acclimatization and hardiness. It is hoped that 
a brief statement of some of the results obtained in nature may 
prove of interest and value to the scientific horticulturist actually 
engaged in acclimatizing plants. 

The advantages of a mountain region for studies of ac- 
climatization are decisive. On Pike’s Peak, for example, as 
many climates are found in ten miles as occur between the for- 
tieth and seventy-fifth parallels, a distance of 3,000 miles. The 
climatic zones of the mountains are further broken up into a 
great number of local climates, owing to the extremely irregu- 
lar surface and the varying maturity of the different land areas. 
The result is a diversity of climates not to be found elsewhere, 
and an accessibility to different climates that is unique. 

In experimenting to determine the causes of the well-known 
dwarfing of alpine plants, it was found that the influence of 
light is negligible, and that water, in the form of soil water, 
is more important than temperature. Since dwarfing is merely 
the characteristic sign of alpine adjustment, 1. e., acclimatization, 
it seems evident that for all dry regions at least, water, and not 
temperature, must be regarded as the controlling factor in ac- 
climatization, and hence in hardiness and winter-killing. This 
conclusion has been repeatedly tested with the alpine shrubs and 
trees at timber line. On many of the Colorado peaks, as else- 
where, the timber line is fringed with a zone of thickets, chiefly 
willows and birches. These regularly reach their highest alti- 
tudes in moist depressions, especially where the exposure to bit- 


38 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEWs Y@Rre 


ter cold and strong winds is extreme. In such cases, the dry- 
ing-out at low temperatures, and not the actual cold, seems to 
be the cause of winter-killing. Additional evidence of this is 
furnished by the alpine spruces and pines. These extend 500 
to 600 feet higher where they occur in shallow ravines and de- 
pressions with a higher water content, particularly on the ex- 
posed north and northwest slopes. This same phenomenon is 
even more marked on the Continental Divide, where the al- 
pine thickets carry the spruces to outposts far above timber 
line proper by increasing the water content of the soil, decreas- 
ing the depth of frost, and protecting the young trees from the 
drying effects of the constant winds of winter. The upper tim- 
ber line on mountains is accordingly a line of winter-killing. Its 
direct cause is not the extreme cold of winter, but the excessive 
water loss at a time when the water supply is chiefly in the 
form of ice, and hence non-available. 

The feeling that the climatic habits of plants are fixed is 
widespread though it appears to rest upon no definite founda- 
tion. It has led not infrequently to the statement that woody 
plants, and trees in particular, cannot be acclimatized. The evi- 
dence from the mountain forests of Colorado is distinctly in 
favor of the conclusion that trees and other woody plants can 
be acclimatized. Indeed, it only requires reciprocal planting at 
various altitudes to constitute final proof. The spruces (Picea 
engelmannu and P. parryana), the firs (Abies concolor and A. 
lasiocarpa), the yellow pine (Pinus séopulorum), lodgepole pine 
(P. murrayana) and limber pine (P. flerilis), and even the 
Douglas spruce (Pseudotsuga mucronata), have repeatedly been 
found growing vigorously in such divergent local climates, 
measured in terms of water content, humidity, temperature and 
soil, that the conclusion is unavoidable that they adjust them- 
selves readily to new climatic conditions. For a time the ap- 
parent distribution of the aspen well within the forest zone of 
the mountains was a puzzling exception, though an extra- 
regional outpost was known at 4,000 feet in western Nebraska. 
This difficulty was finally cleared up by finding that the aspen 
occasionally reaches the lower limit of Pinus scopulorum at the 
base of the foothills. It was also found this summer growing 


REAL FACTORS IN ACCLIMATIZATION. 39 


at an altitude of 12,000 feet on Long’s Peak, in the form of a 
dwarf shrub scarcely a foot high. That trees show great dif- 
ferences in their adjustability is too well-known for comment, 
but it has not been so clearly recognized that the restricted range 
of a native species may be due as much to a lack of migration 
as to the difficulty of adjustment to physical factors. The 
plumed pine (Pinus aristata) is in general restricted to the 
region of the upper timber line, and the pimon (P. edulis) to the 
lower. This distribution is primarily a matter of migration, 
shown by the fact that the plumed pine is represented by many 
outposts due to migration taking place more readily down the 
mountainside than upward. 

The whole question of acclimatization hinges upon the 
meaning given to the term climate. In ordinary usage, climate 
means weather, and it is applied to conditions and areas of the 
vaguest limits both physically and geographically. General 
meteorological results which are chiefly restricted to ‘tempera- 
ture and rainfall are taken as the usual criteria, and factors of 
greater importance, water content, humidity and evaporation, 
largely ignored. The first step toward the exact study of ac- 
climatization must rest upon a thorough investigation of the 
many factors that compose a climate. This can only be done by 
an extensive and intensive study by means of instruments. 

By climate we usually understand the atmospheric factors 
of a region merely, and, as indicated above, soil factors are 
equally important, and often more important. For these rea- 
sons, the ecologist prefers to substitute the term habitat, as the 
sum of all factors that affect the plant, for climate, and to re- 
place acclimatization by the word ecesis, the process of becoming 
established in a new home. These ‘terms at least serve the 
purpose of emphasizing the fact that all of a plant’s environment 
must be taken into account in studying its behavior and struc- 
ture. Climate is too general as well as too restricted a con- 
cept for scientific purposes, at least for the biologist. Botanist 
and horticulturist alike speak of the climate of Colorado, of 
Nebraska, etc., when as a matter of fact the differences be- 
tween sets of physical factors, or habitats, within each are often 
much greater than differences between neighboring States. 


40 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 


Colorado has a half-dozen or more distinct climates, while 
Nebraska, though more uniform, shows markedly different cli- 
mates in prairie, sandhill and foothill region. 

The use of instruments for measuring all the physical 
factors of the plant’s environment is imperative if we are to 
know exactly: what conditions the plant has to meet, and how it 
meets them. Furthermore, it is only in this way that we can 
discover real differences ‘between habitats, or climates, determine 
the best source for promising forms, decide upon the most prac- 
ticable method of treatment, and forecast the probable outcome. 
The exact measurement of the water of the soil, and the humidity 
of the air, of light, temperature, evaporation, wind, soil salts, 
exposure, slope, etc., will work a revolution in the methods and 
results of plant introduction and plant evolution. It will force 
attention to the fact that regions and areas which possess es- 
sentially the same climate, or weather, really show physical dif- 
ferences of the greatest importance to the experimenter. Finally, 
it seems probable that exact ecological methods of this kind 
will demonstrate that all variation is first or last only a question 
of environment; that the minute variations of plants, as Dar- 
win understood them, can be traced to minute physical differ- 
ences of the habitat, and that, as the final crown of the work, 
measured sets of physical factors and measured habitats can be 
made to produce definite desired adaptations in both cultivated 
and native plants. 


The President—Cannot you supplement it with remarks, Dr. Mac- 
Dougal? 

Dr. MacDougal—I find much in this paper which is in accord with 
my own views. I rather object to anyone picking out any one physical 
factor and saying it is the keynote of the business, because it is not. He 
might as well say the left hind wheel. of a wagon is most important, but 
it is not; on the other hand, the four wheels are equally important, and 
they get out of line unless all four are together. When Professor Clements 
says the soil moisture is the most important factor in a given situation, he 
is considering something to be a fact which is not a fact. In the main, 
however, I think I can say that I agree with him in the principal things. 

Mr. H. A. Siebrecht—There is one thing I notice in this connection, 
and that is that the plant or tree suffers more from dryness or drought 
in cold weather. That I have experimented with myself, I find it is a fact, 
and I have often spoken of it in this way, to use a common every-day 


REALLY PACTORS: IN ACECLIMATIZATION. 41 


phrase. I said a man with a full stomach can stand a good blast of wind 
in cold weather, whereas a person with an empty stomach cannot stand 
so much. I have found that out with plants. For instance, we take 
evergreens, planting them in vases in the fall of the year, taking up all 
the roots, and putting them into those tubs or vases, or places where 
they have not been growing, just for decorative purposes—I find that as 
long as the moisture is available, they stand all right. But as soon as 
it freezes up, and dry-cold wind comes, then the plant suffers and it 
sort of curls and folds up and it generally gets its death-blow during such 
a period, when we have the very extreme cold, and no water is available. 
I find that where they are exposed and where they can get the moisture, 
they can stand so much more cold, than where they are more dry, and I 
think that is very correct. 

The President—l was struck, in listening to this paper, with the 
sweeping statement concerning moisture. I expected to see some proof 
of this statement, but he does not offer any. It is simply an assertion. 
What we want is the proof. Now, in regard to this question of moisture, 
1f you look at the condition of various plants in their natural habitat, you 
will notice in the district north of this city where we have very rocky 
hills and our forests are very rocky, that you find trees growing in 
situations where they are as nearly destitute of water as they would be 
in any desert in Arizona, except the moisture of the air. There seems 
to be no soil moisture. I have given special attention to this matter of 
the growth of forest trees where the situation would seem to indicate, 
it not absolutely prove, an absence of soil moisture that would be ac- 
counted fatal to almost anything. Perhaps we may say that these roots 
penetrate to the crevices of the rocks to great depth. Indeed, they do 
undoubtedly, but owing to the situation, the supply of soil moisture is 
extremely limited, but still they will stand the droughts of summer and 
the freezing of winter and come through with marvelous hardiness. Of 
course, they have the same degree of air moisture as other trees. In fact, 
whoever is familiar with the forest region of our country notices that 
this rather conflicts with his assertion. 

Dr. Hansen—Just an observation which ought to go on the record, 
possibly, in this connection: We find it a common practice in the north- 
west where we have 4o degrees below Fahrenheit, sometimes without any 
snow, that it is a great advantage not to permit apple trees or other fruit 
trees or plants to go into winter quarters without an abundance of 
moisture in the soil, to give the plants or trees a thorough watering just 
before they freeze up, otherwise they are very much more injured. 

The President—There is a common expression all through the 
United States, to the effect that it is very disastrous when the winter 
sets in before the swamps are full of water. When the swamps are full 
of water, then let winter come, but before the swamps are full, it is 
disastrous, and occasionally, we will have a season that is so dry that the 
swamps are not full of water, and then we see in the plantings of our 


42 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK 


lawns or in our forests, a great destruction of trees, greater than we 
ever find at any other time. That is in line with the Professor’s assertion. 

The President—Our next paper is “Evaporation as a Climatic Factor 
Influencing Vegetation,’ by Dr. B. E. Livingston, Tucson, Arizona. In 
Dr. Livingston’s absence, we will have the paper read. 


The following paper, by B. E. Livingston, was read: 


Evaporation as a Climatic Factor Influencing 
Vegetation. 


By Burton Epwarp LivincsTon, 
Desert Botanical Laboratory, Tucson, Arizona. 


All plants, excepting aquatics, are influenced in their growth 
and behavior to a marked degree by fluctuations in the exter- 
nal water supply. This is almost wholly due to the continual 
loss of water occurring from all aerial surfaces of the plant 
body, especially from those surfaces which, by the presentation 
of wet membranes to the air, are possible channels for the en- 
trance of the food material, carbon dioxide, and for the exit of 
the waste product, oxygen. By far the greater portion of the 
water that the plant appears to use is not used at all in the true 
sense, but makes up for the loss by transpiration, and is itself 
soon lost by transpiration. This water must, of course, be 
drawn from the soil by the roots and transmitted to the tran- 
spiring organs by the conducting system. 

The rate of water loss by any plant, while it does not strictly 
follow the rate of evaporation in its hourly fluctuations, is deter- 
mined for the entire day or for longer periods by the evapora- 
tion rate, i. e., by the evaporating power of the air around it. 
This is of course true only so long as the water supply of the 
soil is adequate to keep the tissues at their normal condition of 
saturation. 

Every plant has a certain maximum rate of water intake 
through its roots, this maximum being highest for any stage of 
growth with the optimum amount of water in the soil. This 
rate increases as the root system becomes more extensive, and 
decreases when for any reason the root system is injured or par- 
tially destroyed. Of course this maximum also decreases with 
a lowering of the moisture content of the soil. 

There must likewise be a maximum rate at which water can 


44 HORDICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW VYORTS 


be transmitted through the conducting system to the leaves, 
etc., and this rate will probably decrease as the plant develops, 
since the path traversed becomes longer. We know practically 
nothing of the fluctuations of this latter rate, but it is probably 
safe to assume that it does not vary rapidly and is practically 
constant as long as it is not altered by growth. 

Evidently, a resultant of the conditions just described is’ 
this, that the plant is able to maintain in its tissues a water con- 
tent adequate to life and growth only so long as the transpira- 
tion rate does not exceed the maximum rate of water supply 
from the soil. It is thus possible for a plant to grow normally 
in a soil with a low water content, if only the evaporating power 
of the air about its leaves and branches (and hence its tran- 
spiration rate) is not excessive. ‘The same plant may be ob- 
served to wilt and die at a later stage, for either, or both, of two 
very different causes: the water content of the soil may be de- 
creased till the rate of supply to the transpiring tissues becomes 
less than that of loss, or the evaporating power of the air may 
be increased till the rate of loss becomes greater than that of sup- 
ply. It will be seen that both causes bring about the same con- 
dition within the plant, namely, a shortage of water in the tran- 
spiring tissues. 

From my own observations it appears to be true also, that 
a quiescent existence can be maintained with the rate of tran- 
spiration approaching or equalling the maximum rate of supply, 
but that growth cannot occur unless there is still a considerable 
margin of possible supply over and above the transpiration loss 
which is being experienced. 

It is realized by every worker with plants that the water 
supply is the most important and fundamental of the conditions 
which are effective in determining growth. But it is not nearly 
so clearly appreciated that this is not alone dependent upon the 
amount of water in the soil but is to a great extent determined 
by the evaporating power of the air. At first thought it might 
appear that with high evaporation rate the soil would rapidly 
dry out and that at the same time the rainfall would be scanty, 
so that the air condition would be directly transmitted to the 
soil. But such is not the case, at least in many instances; for 


By AeORMEION AS “A CEIMATIC FACTOR. 45 


with rapid evaporation the surface layers of the soil often dry 
out so rapidly that the moisture of the lower layers does not 
have time to diffuse upward to the surface before a functional 
dust mulch is formed, which almost completely checks evapora- 
tion. We are thus confronted with the seemingly paradoxical 
fact that a high evaporation rate acts to really conserve water in 
the deeper soil layers. Neither does the amount and distribution 
of the rainfall furnish evidence by which evaporation conditions 
may be surely predicted, for a time of heavy thunder-showers 
may show a great precipitation for a particular week when the 
evaporation rate was uniformly high throughout the period, ex- 
cepting for a few hours before and after each shower. 


Doubtless one reason for the neglect of evaporation as a 
climatic factor is that the evaporimeters which have been devised 
are unsatisfactory in one way or another, so that the weather 
services of the world have been able to do but little with this 
subject. In weather prediction relative humidity has come to 
be regarded as giving the same information as would rate of 
evaporation, but it leaves out of account the factor of wind, 
which is extremely important in determining the evaporation 
conditions. Numerous as have been the efforts of various 
workers to establish a formula by which the evaporation rate 
may be derived from the data of the ordinarily observed cli- 
matological elements, the suggested formulas are all as unsat- 
isfactory, if not more so, than the different forms of evapo- 
rimeters which have been devised. These formulas differ 
markedly from one another, and the best, could one but select 
it, must be regarded as only approximate. 


With a suitable instrument, evaporation is far better suited 
to the needs of the botanist and agriculturist than is relative 
humidity. In the first place, humidity variations affect the plant 
only through their effect on the evaporation rate, so that the 
evaporimeter gives direct information regarding the physical 
conditions to which the plant is subjected. In the second place, 
the evaporimeter is a self-integrating instrument, like the rain 
gauge, but unlike the thermometer or hygrometer; for any given 
period a single reading gives the sum of all the evaporation in- 


46 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF (NEW. YORE 


crements which have occurred within that period. Thus an 
average rate is easily and quickly determined. 

In attempting to determine some of the factors limiting the 
vegetation of the arid regions of southwestern America the 
writer has been led to a study of evaporation and its effects on 
plant life. The remark is often made in these regions that 
“with water, anything whatever could be made to grow here”; 
a statement which is far too broad. With water properly ap- 
plied, it is certain that a large number of plants will succeed in 
the desert which could not otherwise live in such a climate; but 
all plants thus succeeding, unless it be in seasons of frequent 
rains when evaporation is retarded, must be adapted to with- 
stand the high evaporating power of the air. A large number 
of the ordinary mesophilous plants of gardens are possessed 
of this adaptation, but others are not. The native desert plants 
usually have it to a great degree, but many of them are not so 
fortunate in regard to the opposite power, to withstand a wet 
soil and low evaporation rate at the same time. 

A number of plants were tested in this regard during the 
summer just past, at the Desert Laboratory, Tucson, Arizona. 
Narrow beds were prepared in the open ground, being only five 
or six inches across and separated by irrigation trenches of the 
same width and of an equal depth. The soil was kept moist 
by lateral seepage from these trenches, which were filled once or 
twice a day. The water stood in the trenches only a few hours 
at a time and the soil did not at any time become water-logged. 
It was constantly very near its optimum water content. The 
soil was a heavy adobe clay, similar to that of the Chinese truck 
gardens near Tucson. 

The evaporimeter used in recording the evaporating power 
of the air for this experiment was the porous cup form devised 
by the author and described in Publication No. 50 of the Car- 
negie Institution. The evaporating surface is provided by a 
cup of porous clay about five inches in length and three-quarters 
of an inch in diameter, closed at one end and reinforced by 
a thickened rim at the open end. The material of this cup is 
similar to that of the ordinary Chamberland filter tubes. The 
opening is closed by a perforated rubber stopper carrying a glass 


EVAPORATION AS <A CLIMATIC FACTOR. 47 


tube about fifteen inches in length, the latter passing through a 
cork stopper into a Mason jar, the container for the supply of 
water. Cup and tube are filled with distilled water and the tube 
is carefully inserted into the jar, which has been previously filled, 
in such manner that no air is allowed to enter the tube. Evapo- 
ration takes place from the surface of the cup and water to 
make up for the loss thus occasioned is drawn from the jar be- 
low. The jar bears a file niark on its side to indicate the stand- 
ard level, and is filled to this mark at each reading, the amount 
of distilled water required for this being measured and furnish- 
ing the reading of the instrument. The apparatus was placed 
with the jar beneath the soil surface, the cup projecting about 
six inches above. Readings were taken once a week, which was 
found to be often enough for the work in hand. Considerable 
trouble was experienced this season with a consignment of im- 
pure water, which so clogged the pores of the cups that the latter 
became useless. Fortunately for the work, an instrument had 
been installed at the University of Arizona, by Dr. W. B. Mac- 
Callum, and his records have been used in place of those from 
the instruments which were injured. The University campus 
is so situated that the evaporation conditions there are very 
similar to those of the plantation where this work was carried 
out. 

Among the plants tested were: the garden nasturtium 
(Tropaeolum), morning-glory, marigold, sunflower (Helianthus 
annuus), mustard, castor bean, muskmelon, teasel (Dipsacus 
sylvestris), and jimson-weed (Datura Stramonium). The seeds 
were sown in May, in the midst of the spring dry season, and the 
behavior of the plants was watched till early September, when 
the experiment was brought to a close. 

From the time of planting, the drought conditions continu- 
ally increased in severity until July 6th, when the summer rainy 
season opened. From May 13th to July 1st the weekly aver- 
age of the daily temperature maxima rose from 87 to 107° F., 
while the corresponding average of temperature minima rose . 
from 45 to 75° F. For the same period the weekly average of 
maxima and minima of relative humidity decreased from 45% 
-(maximum) and 32% (minimum) to 31% (maximum) and 


48 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY “OE” NEW = YOR 


17% (minimum). The average weekly evaporation rate for 
the period from May 13th to July Ist was, as given by Dr. 
MacCullum’s data, 323.8 cc. 

The seeds germinated somewhat tardily but otherwise in 
a perfectly normal manner. With the castor bean and musk- 
melon, after a few days in the cotyledon stage growth was rapid, 
more so in the former than in the latter; but growth became still 
more rapid in both cases after July 6th. The other forms of 
the series slowly developed a few leaves and then practically 
ceased to grow at all. Day after day they were examined with- 
out the detection of any difference from the condition of the 
preceding day. The plants did not wilt and appeared healthy, 
except for the lack of growth. There was some growth in all 
cases during this period but it was so small in amount that it 
was practically negligible. 

After July 6th the weekly averages of the daily 
maxima and minima of temperature and relative humidity 
were very close to those exhibited for the week ending 
August 26th, which were: for temperature, 100° and 
80° F., and for relative humidity, 95% and 59%. It is 
at once seen that the temperature conditions were not 
greatly different during the season of summer rains from 
those of the spring dry season, so that the response in growth 
of the plants, which I am about to describe, cannot be related 
to this factor. The humidity conditions for the two periods 
were about what was observed in the case of the evaporation 
rate, which showed an average of 185 cc. per week during the 
second period, i. e., a decrease to about 57% of its rate during 
the dry season, as given previously (383.8 cc.). After the be- 
ginning of the rains irrigation was unnecessary excepting a few 
times when the showers were too far separated and the soil began 
to show signs of drying out. It is, of course, theoretically pos- 
sible that the plant responses here to be described were caused 
by the change from well-water to rain-water. This is not at 
all probable on account of the fact that the saline content of 
the well-water is mainly calcium and magnesium carbonates, 
and that these exist in the soil in rather large amounts, so that 
the rain-water must almost immediately become of practically 


BVAPORATION AS A CLIMATIC FACTOR. 49 


the same concentration as well-water. The responses of the 
plants were immediate and no time elapsed for the leaching of 
soluble salts from the soil by the first rains; in fact, a change in 
the behavior of the plants was observed before any precipitation 
occurred, for the evaporating power of the air began to decrease 
several days before rain fell. 

With the coming of the summer season the plants quite 
generally responded in a very marked degree. The castor bean 
and muskmelon increased their growth, which had been rapid 
before. Morning-glory, sunflower, marigold, mustard and jim- 
son-weed, all came rapidly into flower and fruit in a perfectly 
normal manner, and this within a surprisingly short time. The 
small rosettes of teasel which had been developed showed almost 
no response. They are still alive at the time of writing, but 
are only about three-quarters of an inch across. Nasturtiums 
were also scarcely affected by the change in conditions; they 
finally succumbed during the rainy season. A _ single plant, 
which was situated so as to be in the shade of a creosote bush 
for a few hours of the day, lived several days longer than the 
others, suggesting that light intensity may possibly have had a 
part to play in the failure of this form to succeed. But it seems 
altogether more probable that the plants of this form had been 
so injured by the untoward conditions of the dry season that 
they were unable to recover. The latter idea is supported by an 
observation made several times previous to the present experi- 
ment, that nasturtiums failed to succeed at the Laboratory, when 
grown in pots which were kept well watered. I have never 
started the plants from the seed in the rainy season. 


The meaning of this entire experiment may be expressed in 
this way: that castor bean and muskmelon were able to absorb 
and transmit water from the soil to their foliage considerably 
faster than it was lost by transpiration, and hence were able to 
carry on an active growth even during the intense drought. The 
garden nasturtium and teasel failed to provide the excess of 
water needed for good growth even in the rainy season (al- 
though the latter form did not fail as completely as did the 
former). The other forms of the experiment were unable to 
supply the needed excess of water in the dry season, but pro- 


50 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 


vided it in a normal way in the season of summer rains. The 
power to absorb and transmit water was sufficient in all the 
forms to support life (that is, to prevent wilting and desicca- 
tion) during the drought period, but was adequate for growth 
during this period only in castor bean and muskmelon. 

That the responses just described were due to the change 
in the evaporating power of the air is hardly to be doubted. 
There was not a sufficiently great change in temperature to ac- 
count for it, as has been shown in preceding paragraphs. It 
might be suggested that the decrease in light intensity incident 
to the oncoming of the summer season may have been the cause 
of the response noted; but in the absence of reliable data as to 
the effect of such variations in light intensity (we have as yet 
no practicable photometer for such studies that measures the 
energy of the light as a whole instead of measuring mainly the 
less refrangible portion) and in the face of the a priori con- 
sideration that it is fully as probable that such variations affect 
the plant through changes in the evaporating rate as that the 
light intensity is per se the active agent, the evaporation power 
of the air seems by far the most probable climatic element to 
which to attribute the plant responses here dealt with. 

Some of the native desert perennials respond to the change in 
seasons in a marked way, as by losing their foliage in the dry sea- 
son; but it is difficult in these cases to distinguish between the ef- 
fects of dry soil and those of high evaporating power of the air. 
The deeper soil layers of the Desert Laboratory reservation con- 
tain throughout the year a considerable water supply, so that it 
is entirely possible that the more deeply rooting perennials do 
not suffer directly from desiccation of the soil. A case where 
the rate of evaporation appears to be the controlling factor in 
the seasonal response is furnished by the experiment of Lloyd 
with Fouquieria splendens, in which he was able to cause the 
local development of leaves during the dry season by simply 
wrapping a portion of the leafless stem with a cloth kept wet by 
means of a siphon. No water was allowed to reach the soil 
about the plant, so that the response must have been due either 
to the local check imposed upon transpiration or to water ab- 
sorbed through the bark of the stem, bud scales, etc. From 


EVAPORATION AS A CLIMATIC FACTOR: 51 


what is known of the low rates of water absorption by stems 
and leaves it seems very improbable that the latter supposition is 
true. If the other is correct, it would appear that the Fou- 
quieria plant in question was absorbing water and transmitting 
it up the stem at a rate which was inadequate for the develop- 
ment of foliage, as long as the evaporation (and transpiration) 
remained excessive, but that this rate became adequate for leaf 
formation with the local decrease in evaporation rate. 


Another apparent instance of a response to evaporation 
conditions is afforded by Sphaeralcea pedata, a small red-flow- 
ered mallow attaining a height of about two feet, and bearing 
flowers and leaves the year round. In the winter and early 
spring (the season under the influence of the winter rains) the 
leaves have an area of from twenty to thirty times as great 
as in the spring dry season. While the leaves of the earlier sea- 
son are bright green and nearly smooth, those formed in the 
season of drought are densely covered with white tomentose 
hairs. Growth is less rapid in the dry season and the longer 
branches often die back to the ground at this time. The leaves 
of the more mesophilous type mostly succumb before the ar- 
rival of the summer rains, leaving a plant of an appearance 
entirely different from that of the early spring. In the summer 
rainy season this plant resumes its more rapid growth and the 
leaves then produced are of the mesophilous type in the shade 
and partake of this character to a large extent even in the sun- 
shine. It was observed that in the dry season potted plants of 
Sphaeralcea growing in a soil kept at the optimum water con- 
tent refused to develop the mesophilous type of leaf, and that 
the same specimens produced that type during the season of low 
evaporation rate. The main difference noted between the potted 
plants and those in the open ground lay in the fact that the 
former retained the mesophilous leaves produced in the early 
spring somewhat longer than did the latter. 


This evidence is of course very inconclusive, but it seems 
indicated at least that even with the soil kept at its optimum 
water content, Sphaeralcea responds to high evaporating power 
of the air by the assumption of an entirely different form and 


52 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK 


structure of leaf from that exhibited under less strenuous con- 
ditions of evaporation. 

A consideration of evaporation as a controlling factor in 
plant growth would be logically incomplete without mention of 
the abnormal behavior of many pronounced xerophytes when ~ 
subjected to conditions of low evaporation rate. Among gar- 
deners the succulents are generally regarded as very difficult to 
grow in the more humid regions, and especially in glass houses. 
Such plants often fail to develop normally and often meet their 
death through the action of fungus diseases of the damping-off 
form. It is possible for the gardener to provide conditions of 
soil moisture very nearly approximating those of arid regions, 
but in most conservatories it is practically impossible to attain 
anything like the atmospheric conditions to which desert suc- 
culents are normally subjected for a great part of the year. I 
have had occasion to study the fine collection of cacti grown 
under glass at the Missouri Botanical Garden, at which place I 
enjoyed the privileges of working in the conservatories during 
two months of last winter, and it appeared that while many spe- 
cies were thriving well under the artificial conditions, yet a num- 
ber of forms were not at all healthy. It was further deter- 
mined that these plants were not transpiring in the normal man- 
ner. I have also often observed at the Desert Laboratory that 
pot-grown cactus seedlings are very prone to die of a damping- 
off disease or root disease, especially when subjected to a low 
evaporation rate. It would thus seem that certain of these 
plants which are adapted to great evaporating power of the air, 
do not thrive when exposed to low evaporation. Perhaps the 
transpiration stream is necessary in such cases. It may be that 
the epidermal covering does not develop normally in the absence 
of rapid transpiration, and that this explains the frequent de- 
struction of these succulents by fungi when grown in conser- 
vatories. 

It is possible that evaporation plays an important part in 
causing the marked differences in the vegetation of neighboring 
sunny and shady areas. In an experiment carried on by the 
Desert Laboratory in cooperation with a large number of workers 
distributed over the United States, a number of tests of the 


PVE ORATION "AS: Ay (CLIMATIC BACTOR: 53 


evaporation conditions in sunny and shady situations have been 
made during the growing season just past. These tests uni- 
formly show a much higher evaporation rate in the sun than in 
the shade. An instance of this difference may be taken from 
the readings of two instruments installed at the Missouri Botan- 
ical Garden, at St. Louis. For these data I am indebted to the 
Director of that Garden, for an active and appreciative interest, 
and to Mr. Henri Hus, for the care of the instruments and the 
preparation of the data. In this test one of the evaporimeters was 
exposed 15 cm. above the soil surface in a denuded area about 
three yards square lying within the Experiment Garden. From 
this area vegetation was excluded during the season. The sec- 
ond instrument stood at the same height above the ground in 
a coppice in the Arboretum, where the shade was rather dense. 
For the period from May 10th to June 17th, the average weekly 
rate of evaporation was 142 cc. in the sun, and 58 cc. in the 
shade. From July 22d to August 26th, the average rates were 
187 cc. and 61 cc. Records for the period intervening between 
these two were lost on account of an injury to one of the instru- 
‘ments. 


Attention was called to the importance of evaporation in 
the general distribution of forest centers by Transeau, in a 
paper in The American Naturalist, Vol. 39, pp. 875-889, 1905. 
The same material, in a condensed form, appeared in the Seventh 
Annual Report of the Michigan Academy of Science, pp. 73-75. 
These papers call attention to the fact that the distribution of 
forest centers in eastern America cannot be accounted for on 
the ground of heat and precipitation. The author presents a 
map showing the ratio of rainfall to evaporation, expressed in 
percentages, deriving his evaporation data from the paper of T. 
Russell in the Monthly Weather Review for September, 1888, 
and shows conclusively that this map exhibits “climatic centers 
which correspond in general with the centers of plant distribu- 
tion. Further, the distribution of grassland, prairie, open forest, 
and dense forest regions is clearly indicated. . . . This is 
explained by the fact that such ratios [of rainfall to evaporation] 
involve four climatic factors which are of the greatest import- 


54 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK 


ance to plant life, viz., temperature, relative humidity, wind 
velocity, and rainfall.” 

Dr. Transeau and myself devised a plan for obtaining 
evaporation data more definite than that at hand by asking the 
assistance of numerous workers in the country to install and 
operate the instruments for a widely distributed series of ob-— 
servations. The outcome of this plan was the cooperative ex- 
periment mentioned in a previous paragraph. Data are at hand 
for some thirty stations, but have not yet been sufficiently worked 
over to warrant their being made public here; they will be pub- 
lished at a later date. I am able to give at this time, however, 
a good example of the differences in evaporation of stations at 
different altitudes in the vicinity of Tucson, Arizona. Instru- 
ments were installed on May 12th, 14th and 16th, in the Santa 
Catalina Mountains at altitudes of approximately 6,000, 7,500, 
and 8,000 feet. These instruments were read on May 31st and 
June Ist and gave the following average weekly rates: 6,000 ft., 
238 ccs 7,500: it. 147 ces; 800011, Bisa nec: 

These instruments were placed at a height of 15 cm. above 
the ground and were all in the open, but were surrounded at 
some distance by the vegetation of the locality, the lower one by 
scrub oaks, the middle one by open pine woods, and the upper 
one by a denser growth of pine, Douglas spruce, etc. Later in 
the season these instruments were injured by the action of im- 
pure water, so that I am unable to give an average for a longer 
period. These figures would suggest that the evaporating power 
of the air plays a great part in the distribution of vegetation at 
the different altitudes of a mountain range of this sort, a con- 
clusion which would be expected from the work of Transeau 
above mentioned. 


The President—I am, myself, very glad indeed that this subject of 
evaporation is receiving this attention, which is indicated by Dr. Livings- 
ton’s paper. I think we have not given a tenth of the attention we ought 
to give to this subject of evaporation from plants. I have not the figures 
at my fingers’ ends about the amount of water evaporated by a tree in a 
day. We have statements of the amount of water evaporated by a field 
of grain, maze, in full vigorous growth. The amount of water evaporated 
by an acre of any plant, say of clover, or anything of that kind, is given 
to us, and it is staggering in the figures, and it certainly is a very im- 


cael 


EVAPORATION AS <A CLIMATIC FACTOR. 55 


portant factor in this whole subject of plant development and plant life. 
The nursery trade generally will tell you the fall is the time to plant 
anything deciduous. You go through the nurseries and they are going 
all around—pulling the leaves off every tree. What is that for? It is 
to make the purchaser think that tree has shed its leaves and has got its 
season’s growth, and secondly, they know if that tree is put up with 
those leaves on, the evaporation is going to exhaust the tree immediately 
and it will lose its life and it is going to die. The evergreen is a tree 
that carries its leaves the year around. It is not like a tree that sheds 
its leaves. There is a point to it, to which sufficient attention is not given, 
and I think it is extremely important because, as Dr. Livingston and Dr. 
MacDougal stated, there is a point beyond which, if the moisture of the 
plant is exhausted below a certain point, you have reached the death- 
point beyond which life cannot endure. By this investigation that has 
been indicated in this paper, I think we are going to get a great deal 
of light on these important matters. 

Dr. Hansen—It has been our experience in our nursery work in 
the northwest (that means the northern part of the Mississippi valley) 
that the fall planting of all trees means death to a tree. They are usually 
dry enough to burn by spring. A tree has no chance whatever to es- 
tablish communication with moisture in the soil, especially evergreens. 
It is sometimes said that our dry winter winds will take the moisture 
from a fence post. 

The President—There is no doubt about it. 

Dr. Hansen—Another point I have noticed in the spring is that the 
fruit trees in the nursery have the young shoots shriveled very much, 
and in the early spring it is unsafe to dig too much because the shoots 
are so shriveled that they lack moisture. They have had more moisture 
evaporated in the winter than there was in the twig, but by leaving them 
for a few days in the spring after a rain, they plump up and the shoots 
absorb enough moisture from the air, it is presumed, so that they have 
assumed a plump appearance. I think this question of evaporation is 
an important factor. 

Mr. Southwick—I have in my notes here, a lecture given in this 
hall, in which it was stated that an elm tree evaporated 100 tons of 
moisture a day, and that an acre of grain—it does not say what was 
on it—evaporated one hundred tons of water in a day. Is that so? 

The President—That is a remarkable statement. That is the trouble. 
A great many of us get hold of a truth and try to kill it in every way 
we can by exaggeration. 

Mr. Siebrecht—I do not believe in late fall planting of evergreens. 
If you can transplant them early enough so that they will get at least 
three weeks or six weeks of warm weather with moisture with it, and 
you get nearly all the roots—I think under such favorable conditions, 
you can make our evergreens live. They will make small fibres, and if 
you will only take them along, they are all ready to spring. That is to 


50 HORTICULTURAL SOGIETY OF” NEW “YOR 


say they keep dormant until late in the season, and all at once the hot 
sun comes in the latter part (or the early part, I have seen it on the 2oth 
of April). Then the trees begin to bud, I am speaking of evergreens now, 
and put out new roots. Now, as to shade trees, it is very true, that the 
people place an order in the spring or in the summer for trees and 
shrubs, and cannot wait. A gentleman called me up yesterday and said, 
“Why haven’t you planted those shrubs? My trees are all in.” Well, 
we had to take a lot of trees, lindens, and Norway maples, and we 
stripped off the leaves, in fact, we cut them off. I do not believe in 
stripping because you pull them out of the socket, as it were, so we cut 
off half the leaves and transplanted that tree with a nice bunch of roots 
and fibres, and after such a good rain as we have had lately, they stand 
up and are nice-looking. If they should make a growth and the growth 
should not get matured, then of course it would suffer during the winter; 
but the nurseryman has got so short a time in the spring that you cannot 
blame him. : 

Mr. Macoun—In Canada, the subject of evaporation is a very im- 
portant one, especially in our poorer districts. We find, for instance, in 
the Behring Province, that the evaporation is too great for most kinds 
of trees, and most varieties of tree fruit, and what we wish to find 
out is just how much moisture each variety of fruit must have during 
the winter to enable it to stand the winter, because it is quite evident that 
a tree must have a certain average amount of moisture during the 
winter. On the contrary at Ottawa, trees which are hardy there, different 
varieties, only some of which are hardier elsewhere, we find the tenderer 
varieties of those kinds have the largest amount of moisture. The 
analyses of the chemists say that the tenderest varieties of apples, for 
instance, which were killed at other places farther north, had the high- 
est amount of moisture at Ottawa, hence a different treatment would have 
to be given those trees farther north than trees which had not so much 
moisture. For instance, Dr. Hansen said in North Dakota they recom- 
mended cultivating very late in the autumn in order to get the trees as 
well charged with moisture as possible. I believe that is true in certain 
limits for certain varieties, but in the country where I live, if we were 
to cultivate these tenderer varieties in the late autumn, those trees would 
have too much moisture in them, and not be properly matured, and hence 
would be killed back at the terminal growth. I think that the point that 
should be worked out by those who are making a study of this question, 
is how much moisture certain varieties of trees should have on the 
average, to withstand the cold climate there. Now, we all have to grow 
a variety of apples, so as to cover the season, but it seems to me that we 
must give these varieties different treatment if we are to have equal 
success, and that is not a subject which has been given enough attention— 
the different methods for different varieties. We have been working on 
the subject at Ottawa, of growing these trees according to the degree of 
hardiness in proportion-to results, and we find that the trees which mature 


EVAPORATION AS A CLIMATIC FACTOR. 57 


earliest are the hardiest, but those that are the least hardy have the most 
moisture. 

The President—I would like to ask whether the subject does not 
bear directly upon what we call winter freezing. That is, the freezing and 
cracking of the trunk of a tree, which occasionally takes place, and which 
to me has always been inexplicable. Isn’t that a part of this problem 
exactly? 

Mr. Macoun—Yes, the freezing does this. Thus, in the Province 
of Nova Scotia, and I believe in a few places in New York, they have 
been troubled with what they call crown rot of a tree. That is the 
breaking away of the bark right at the base of the tree. In investigating 
this, I have come to the conclusion that that is almost entirely due to the 
late growth of the tree, and is due to the sudden breaking away of the 
bark of the tree, owing to the fact that right at the base of the tree you 
will have the most amount of moisture in the trunk. The first fall of 
snow prevents the drying out of moisture from that part of the trunk. 
That snow may go away and then there may come a drop of tempera- 
ture to 30 or 4o degrees below, and the cracking takes place. In those 
parts where they adopt the highest method of cultivation, they are 
troubled the most, The late growth is the trouble. 

Dr. Hansen—That must be the same trouble which we call “bark 
bursting.” That occurs in nursery stock out in the northwest. The 
trunk becomes perfectly saturated with moisture, and it seems to fracture 
the bark at the surface. I did not mean in my former remarks to ad- 
vocate late cultivation. I meant if we had a late fall we should give the 
trees a thorough watering before winter sets in. 

Mr. Macoun—I notice that Professor Watkins advocates cultivating 
right up to the time winter sets in for hoed crops. I wrote to him but 
did not get any reply from him. 

Dr. Hansen—One of our orchardists in Minnesota recommends the 
cultivation of orchards right up to winter when the snow comes, but what 
he means is not what we mean by cultivation. He simply means the use 
of a disk harrow to scratch the surface and keep in the moisture. 

Mr. Von Herf—1 have also had some personal experience in regard 
to plums, apples and peaches, and also grape-vines in North Carolina. 
The trouble does not occur every year, but it occurs in some years, some- 
times being very disastrous. Sometimes hundreds of thousands of trees 
will be killed. I know of only one year, however, when grape-vines 
were killed in that way. Some were killed in the ground and others 
sprouted out, but were killed dead. We found the stopping of cultivation 
at certain times in the fall is a good precaution against this trouble, be- 
cause we do not think it necessary of late to cultivate after the tree has 
made its growth. We think it is for no purpose. We stop cultivating 
about August. In regard to transplanting the trees, I have also some 
experience and I can corroborate what Mr. Siebrecht says, that the trans- 
planting of evergreens is most successful just at the period when they 


58 HORTICULTURAL” SOCIETY OF NEW ) YORE 


are sprouting out. We transplanted with certain success along these lines, 
magnolia and other things. I can also cite an example in Washington. 
They have a nursery for street planting only and I was told some years 
ago by the gentleman in charge that they could never successfully trans- 
plant an American poplar. This is not an evergreen, but it seems to make 
the same demand as evergreens. He says they have no trouble now, if 
they transplant at the time it is sprouting out. 

Mr. Siebrecht—Talking about excessive moisture, there is an ex- 
ample. The tree wants to be handled like an evergreen. If you take it 
at just the time the bud is swelling, you can transplant any size of tree, 
but you take it too early or too late, and you lose every time. Speaking 
about the excessive moisture and cracking of the bark in trees, 1 want 
to say just a word. I have found in my nursery—I have got all kinds 
and conditions of soil, upland and sandy soil and flat land and heavy 
soil—the heavy soil I must not cultivate late in the fall. There is plenty 
of moisture there. There is too much. I planted trees last winter, and 
many of them cracked up and down. That was late in the season, and 
too much evaporation took place, more than the body could contain, and 
the bark split. With the Norway maples, it was the same way: of those 
upon the high ground and the hillside, not one suffered, although 
they are not so luxuriant and the growth is slower, but the foliage was 
heavy. There is no cracking, either with the Norway maples, linden trees 
and plane trees. I find we have to study the conditions of the atmosphere 
and the ground and the locations for the different kinds of trees, and where 
it is a dry climate, with the climatic conditions on the dry side, late 
cultivation might be very well to give the tree all the condensation and 
the moisture you can. On the other hand, where it is very moist and wet, 
leaving it alone, letting the tree mature and letting it have its own way 
is a good thing; and then it can stand the winter in a dormant or semi- 
dormant condition. 

Mr. Munson—I think a portion of this question is a matter of 
evaporation and condensation. I have had an experience of that kind. 
For example, the transplanting of the magnolia, one of the most difficult 
trees to plant if the foliage is left upon it, but by clipping the foliage 
off, they can be transplanted almost as easily as beech trees. It is true 
that evaporation enters into that problem, but why does it not transplant 
as readily as arbor vite at that season? 

Mr. Siebrecht—You have got too much moisture to take care of. 
My observation leads me to this conclusion; that the magnolia and most 
of the evergreens are very slow in starting to feed the roots. It takes 
a larger amount of temperature to start the new roots to feeding, and 
you have got the tree loose from the soil and it cannot make feeding 
roots quickly enough, so in the meantime the evaporation from the foliage 
exhausts the tree. We take that evaporation away so that it can stand 
long enough for the roots to form and then it can feed and it is all right. 
Ii you want to transplant a tree in full foliage so as to make a showing 


EVAPORATION AS A CLIMATIC FACTOR. 59 


at once, you must provide shade for it so as to prevent evaporation. 
Now, it works differently whether the tree be dormant or active. I have 
chserved frequently that while in the spring we cultivate and work up 
a plot of ground, say for a peach tree, we push them into bud and bloom 
more rapidly than if we had not disturbed that soil. The evergreens 
cultivated in the same way will push a little more rapidly and become 
filled with sap sooner and the sharp freezing following, we lose the 
first crop of buds and shoots. They are more sensitive to frost. That is 
the young growths when they are full of sap, are more sensitive to 
frost than when they are dormant. When they are dormant, it seems that 
they are more hardy. 


The President—Reference has been made to transplanting Magnolia 
grandiflora. I would say I have been laboring for fifteen or twenty years 
to acclimate it to this lat‘tude, because it is, as you all know, the grandest 
magnolia in the world. So far as I know, the most successful specimens 
in this part of the country are at Riverton, New Jersey, a few miles 
north of Philadelphia. If there are any north of that, I would like to 
know it. I think this region is the center of the world, and that this 
place should not be satisfied until we get Magnolia grandiflora here, 
so I tried with a great number of specimens, but never could get them 
through a longer period than five years, and never got them to bloom. 
I thought by growing a number of specimens and protecting them well 
the first winter, a little bit the next winter and a little bit less the next 
winter after that, I should, by the fifth winter succeed, but unfortunately, 
I was like the good German who said he got his horse down successfully 
to a point where he could live on one straw a day, and then the horse 
died, so when I got this along to the fifth year, it died. So this theory 
of adapting the tree to its environment by slow process has not been suc- 
cessful with Magnolia grandiflora. The average temperature is just as 
low at Riverton, N. J., as it is at my place, although I am a good way 
north and there are other conditions affecting the surroundings, so it 
is not temperature alone. I don’t know what it is, nor do I know what 
is the matter with the magnolia. The chief factor, however, I do not 
think is temperature. 


Mr. Von Herf—I found a great difference between individuals. We 
have to consider that practically all of the magnolias we see are raised 
from seed, and if you pay attention, you will find there is as great a 
difference as between seedling apples, or any kind you grow from seed. 
Some grow tall and some not so tall. Some have broad leaves and others 
have leaves which are narrow as a laurel, also they differ in their ca- 
pacity to bloom, and they differ in the same way as to hardiness. I found 
a large number of such seedling magnolias in a section where they are 
frostbitten, and some so tender that they freeze to the ground. These are 
individual specimens. Now, the most northern I have seen were in 
Philadelphia, and right in the city. I was recently in the city and I saw 


60 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORE 


the place where it had been cut down, and it must have been very large, 
because it was a large trunk. 

The President—It was on the corner of Broad and Chestnut Streets, 
and there is a seventeen-story building there now, and the two were not 
compatible. That is why they did not get on together. 

Mr. Von Herf—The way is to select seed from the most northern 
trees and push them on in that way. I think it can be so arranged in 
New York as to get them in sheltered locations. I observed some 
Magnolia grandiflora growing in Washington City. One would think 
that as good a locality in which they would grow well as any place, but 
they do not grow there as well as they do a little bit farther south. I 
have in mind some trees opposite the White House. I saw them‘twenty 
years ago, and they appear to me now scarcely any larger than they did 
then. Now, in a proper location, they would be much larger than they 
were then. We can hardly expect to raise magnolias as fine as they 
are in their home, but I think they could be grown by proper selection 
in the manner I indicated. 


Mr. Siebrecht—I suppose it was nearly twenty years ago when a lady, 
a customer of mine, offered me a thousand dollars if I would make a 
magnolia grow in 54th Street in front of old St. Luke’s Hospital, and I 
declined the offer. Since then I have been practicing, like our president 
here, and at last I have got some that high (indicating about 4 to 5 feet), 
and those are from seed brought from Mount Vernon. Mr. Stuart, the 
superintendent of the grounds at Mount Vernon, said, “If you do not 
make these grow north, then it cannot be done. These are the most 
hardy we have.” I have got them up to now, and I believe what my 
friend says. I have tried in the same way with English holly and have 
been fairly successful with the variegated and the laurel leaved, and also 
the common one in England. I have also succeeded in acclimating aucuba. 
It is doing very well. I have also acclimated the laurel and the big 
leaved laurel. I have got them but they are not very big trees and they 
are in sheltered locations, of course. I have succeeded in wintering over 
the crepe myrtle, and although they killed down to the ground very 
often, they are in flower now. Therefore I think we can, by trying, 
acclimate those things. 


The President—I think that if I could get seedlings from trees that 
were native in North Carolina four thousand feet above the level of the 
sea, where the thermometer sometimes gets 25 degrees below zero, 
Fahrenheit, we ought to have them here, and I have brought them from 
four thousand feet above sea level, North Carolina, with the expectation 
of doing so. I have also had them from New Jersey and they did so well 
that they not only thrived, but perfected their seed, so I get seedlings 
from them and it would seem as though 4,000 elevation in North Carolina 
ought to bring it to New York successfully. 


Mr. Von Herf—What place is that? 


EVAPORATION AS A CLIMATIC FACTOR. 61 


The President—Near Cranberry, southwest of Asheville. I hope 
in time we will have some publications from Tucson on this matter of 
evaporation which will throw some considerable light on this subject. I 
cannot understand how it is that nature overloads the trees with moisture 
in the winter time. It reminds me, while this matter is being discussed, 
of a man up in a little town who went by the name of Uncle Jabez, his 
name being Jabez Jones. He was like these trees which the winter 
affects—occasionally he would get overloaded with moisture, alcoholic 
moisture—and one day he came out and he evidently had too heavy a 
load on, and someone says, “Uncle Jabez, you are overloaded to-day,” 
and with a twinkle in his eye, he said, “Yes, I would better have made 
two trips!” (Laughter). Now, Mr. Munson, let us hear about “Resistance 
to Cold, Heat, Wet, Drought, Soils, etc., in Grapes.” 


The following paper was read by T. V. Munson: 


Resistance to Cold, Heat, Wet, Drought, Soils, 
Insects, Fungi, in Grapes. 


By T. V. Munson, Denison, Texas. 


As a general, if not a universal, law of adaptation of plants 
to environment, we find that the natives in the environment are 
better adapted than the exotics. 

The vine is no exception to this law. Let us test the asser- 
tion by comparison. 

What species and varieties of grapes resist winter’s cold 
best? Certainly the vines, and vineyard varieties derived there- ~ 
from, native in cold regions, known as Vitis vulpina (riparia), 
northern section of V. labrusca, V. cordifolia, northern section, 
V. bicolor, V. cinerea, northern section, V. rubra. 

Of these, V. vulpina of Wisconsin, Minnesota and Dakota 
readily endures without protection, —40° to —50° F. But vul- 
pma of Virginia and northern Texas can endure only —15° 
to —20°. The Labruscas of Massachusetts can withstand —20° 
te —25°, while those of South Carolina perish in —10° to —15° 
The cordifolia of central Illinois and Ohio (about the north- 
ern limit of this species) endures. —15° to —25°, while the 
Florida cordifolia is sometimes killed to the ground in northern 
Texas with zero or a few degrees colder. V. bicolor of south- 
~ern Wisconsin endures —30° readily, while Norton Virginia, of 
the nearly allied species of aestivalis, finds its northern limits 
about Louisville and Cincinnati. So we might continue with all 
the species and their varieties. 

The limiting lines of hardiness to withstand cold do not 
follow the parallels of latitude, but the isothermal lines. Hence 
we have wild grapes in northwest Texas that readily endure the 
winters of Massachusetts, and the Vitis Californica, found along 
Rogue River in southern Oregon,—its extreme northern range— 
winter-kills to the ground, when grown at Denison, Texas. 


64 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 


The Post-Oak grape of northern Texas endures the winters per- 
fectly in middle Ohio, where temperature sinks to —25° some- 
times. But when we come to reverse the test, the Massachu- 
setts and Ohio grapes cannot endure the Texas summers any- 
thing nearly so well as do the native Post-Oak and Mustang 
grape. The Concord, that remains vigorous for fifty years in 
Massachusetts, its native State, survives only eight to fifteen 
years in Texas with equally good treatment. This brings into 
consideration another element of hardiness, the power to with- 
stand great or only small range of climatic change. In this, 
the general law still holds good. Those species with their varie- 
ties native in a region subject to great and sudden ranges of 
temperature, can endure well, while those brought into such 
regions from where the range is small, will suffer, as is the case 
with grapes of Florida or New England brought into northwest 
’ Texas. Both suffer, while the vines of northwest Texas thrive 
well, both in Florida and New England, so far as resistance to 
heat and cold are concerned.. In other words, northwest Texas 
plants have a much wider range of climatic endurance than have 
either those of Florida or Massachusetts. 

No other section of the United States*has so great a range 
of climatic conditions as northern Texas and Oklahoma. 

This will suffice as to cold, heat, wet and drought; but we 
must not fail to observe, that some individuals of a species have 
greater resistance power than others, all developed in the same 
climate, soil, etc. This fact is seized by the plant breeder with 
great avidity, to increase the hardiness of his varieties of same 
blood and nativity by selection, depending on the law of in- 
heritance to sustain his selections. 

As to soil, the law holds good so far as resisting an exces- 
sive or injurious chemical element. For example: some varie- 
ties of grapes, the Labrusca, Lincecumii and Rotundifolia varie- 
ties, especially, chlorose very badly (turn a pale, sickly yellow 
in foliage), if set in soils having above 40% of carbonate of lime, 
while the Vinifera, Cordifolia, Cinerea, Berlandieri, Champini, 
Candicans, Rupestris and Monticola thrive in such soils. We 
find those that chlorose badly are natives of very.sandy soils, 
along the banks of streams and lakes—the Vulpina, or on sand- 


pe Sisd ANCE (TO) .COLD, HEAT, ETC, IN’ GRAPES: 65 


hills, as is the Post-Oak grape of Texas, while those that grow 
best in very limey soils, belong to species native in such soils. 

We find, however, that in some cases varieties of species, 
native in very sterile soils, take on far more vigorous growth 
when put into soils richer in humus, and the chief elements of 
plant-food; and this causes excess of wood and leaf-growth, to 
the detriment of fruit bearing, when carried to the extreme. 

Nearly all species of grapes are native in warm, loamy, 
well-drained soils, and such cannot long endure with roots per- 
manently in water, or in cold, livery, compact clays; but a few 
species are known that cannot long survive in soils not sub- 
irrigated, or having growing moisture at all times. Such are 
Vulpina, Rupestris, Cordifolia, Cinerea, Rotundifolia and 
Simpsoni. The last-named is often found with the roots per- 
petually submerged in the borders of swamps, and making im- 
mense growth. In such situations, the Vinifera, native on the 
limey hills of southwest Aisa, and Post-Oak grapes of the Texas 
sand-hills, would survive only a short time. 

In land that is seapy during rainy weather and some time 
after, but in the dry, hot summers, dries out and becomes hard, 
no grape thrives. Cordifolia, above all other species, perhaps, 
can endure such situations longest. 

Concerning resistance to mildews, rots, etc., it is true that 
all species native in high arid regions are very quickly and de- 
structively attacked by the cryptogamic parasites, when moved 
into humid situations, where such organisms exist. For resist- 
ance to these parasites, natives of the parasitic regions must be 
sought. Perfectly resisting varieties in such regions, when hy- 
bridized with nonresisting varieties, produce only partially, or 
weakly resisting varieties. 

Take a vine from a parasitic region, loaded with the para- 
sites of mildew and rot, and plant it in an arid region and it be- 
comes free of these fungi, simply because the parasites must 
have much moisture in the air to propagate. 

This law does not hold good as to root parasites, or bac- 
terial blights that live within the cells. For example, the Ana- 
hein grape disease, of California, thrives in the moist regions of 
northern California as well as in the dry region of southern Cali- 


66 HORTICULTURAL “SOCIETY “OF NEW “ORK 


fornia, where it originated, just as pear-blight, when once intro- 
duced into California and Colorado, is as contagious and de- 
structive as in Georgia or Texas. 

The insects that infest grapes know no specific bounds. 
The rose chafer, the fidia, the leaf-folder, the leaf-hopper, are 
just as bad in one region as another in which they can endure 
the winters, and on one species as another with few exceptions. 
Certain varieties resist, or are distasteful to these insects, and 
thereby escape, while others are greatly liked and damaged by 
them. 

The leaf-folder, however, never hurts a vine that has leaves 
that are glabrous, that is, entirely without pubescence, or down 
of any kind on the upper side of the leaves. The egg is laid on 
the upper side and the larva finding no pubescence to tie its webs 
to, and thus unable to draw the leaf together over it, soon per- 
ishes in the sun, or is eaten by birds; hence only grapes with 
leaves more or less downy on upper side of the leaves are dam- 
aged by the leaf-folder. 

There are some varieties of grapes much less bothered by 
the leaf-hopper, than others. These generally are the varieties 
with very firm, dense tissue, such as the Post-Oak grapes of 
Texas. The fidia and rose chafers make little choice of kinds, 
and are voracious feeders on the foliage. The Rotundifolia is 
freest from attack of fungi and insects, in fact almost entirely 
exempt. 

The Phylloxera comes well under the general rule. It can 
do little damage to those species of grapes native in the same 
regions where the Phylloxera is native, yet there is much dif- 
ference in resistance there. For example, V. rotundifolia is en- 
tirely immune; rupestris, vulpina, cinerea, Berlandiert, Champini, 
candicans, Doaniana, aestivalis and Lincecumi are so high in 
resistance as to be practically uninjured, though they may be 
attacked; while Labrusca is low in resistance and is much 
weakened in clay soils, if infested, and vinifera is entirely non- 
resistant. It is a native of regions never infested by Phylloxera, 
until introduced among cultivated vines. 

To have given full lists of resistant and non-resistant va- 
rieties under each heading of this paper would have been entirely 


esi STANCE TO COLD, HEAT, ETC, IN GRAPES. 67 


beyond its province, as from what is said, any one acquainted 
with grape species and their native habitats can readily select 
the resistant kinds in each case. 


The President—The subject is now before the Conference for any 
discussion you may have upon it. 

Mr. Von Herf—With regard to heat and cold, I experimented for 
nearly ten years with about 350 varieties, and they stood the winter very 
well, with the exception of one variety, which was very tender, which was 
the plant we got from the White House in Washington and which seemed 
to be quite tropical in its nature. Now, as to the resistance of vinifera, 
we had no trouble, because it was sandy soil, and they were mostly grassed 
and some got their growth. I believe if we could suppress the black 
rot on vinifera, they would grow just as well. They require more careful 
treatment and better fertilizing, and more care, but they will grow. There 
is no trouble about that. It is only the black rot which makes it impossible 
to raise fruit. We got vines from nurseries for a year or two, but the 
trouble got worse every year until we found it practically impossible to 
continue although there is a little difference in the different varieties, 
but we cannot even raise Niagara after the vines have reached some age. 
That is, after they are some three or five years old. The Niagara, J am 
told, has the vinifera in it. I think we produced vinifera from seeds, 
the vinifera vine from seeds coming up from Niagara grape seeds, so I 
think it is shown it has vinifera in it. 

The President—Dyr. Hansen has a paper which he will read entitled, 
“Ts Acclimatization an Impossibility ?” 


The following paper was read by N. E. Hansen: 


Is Acclimatization an Impossibility? 
By Proressor N. E. HAnsEn, 


South Dakota State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, 
Brookings, South Dakota. 


The title of this paper would seem to indicate views de- 
cidedly iconoclastic and heterodox for a Conference on Plant 
Acclimatization. The casual reader might inquire why we 
should hold a conference on how to accomplish an impossibility. 
This line of thought has accumulated slowly in the course of 
extensive horticultural experiments extending over a series of 
years, and I will expect some objections from people who have 
never faced the problem of originating fruits capable of en- 
during —40° F. with the ground bare of snow. I do not be- 
lieve in giving winter protection to any plant, because that is for- 
ticulture on crutches and hence something to be avoided if pos- 
sible. 

The argument may be divided into the following sections: 

A. Acclimatization of perennial plants; Botanical names are 
insufficient for horticulturists; DeCandolle’s law. What is pos- 
sible for nature is impossible for man. 

B. Acclimatization of annual plants; Easily done by man, 
but is really a process of sifting out of unfit elementary spe- 
cies; or minor changes, such as shortening the period of 
growth. 

Horticulturists who have had to deal with plants in the 
prairie northwest have learned by costly experience that the 
source of seed of any variety of tree, or any other perennial 
plant, determines in a large measure its hardiness in a given 
locality. Hence my contention is that botanical names do not 
tell the whole story. Box elders from Southern States winter- 
kill at the North. The people of Manitoba have learned long 
ago that they should not plant box elder seed native of the South, 


70 HORTICULTURAL . SOCIETY OF NEW > YORE 


although they appear to be similar in all observable botanical 
characters. Russian foresters called our box elder tender, the 
seed having been gathered near St. Louis, Missouri; but when 
they secured seed from pure native trees in Manitoba they 
found the trees to be perfectly hardy at the north. They named 
this variety ““Boreale,” indicating its northern origin; as yet we 
have not waked up enough here to make this distinction as far 
as I am aware, and the average planter is blissfully ignorant 
as to whether the box elder he plants dates back to Arkansas, 
Manitoba, Missouri or North Dakota. 

It has been found by many northern nurserymen that the 
red cedar of the South is tender and short-lived at the North, 
while the local northern form of the species is hardy. 

Robert Douglas learned many years ago in northern [I- 
linois that the black walnut of the South was tender at the 
North, whereas the local northern form was hardy. He also 
determined that there was a decided difference in hardiness on 
exposed prairies of the conifers from the Rocky Mountains; the 
forms of various species from the Pacific slope side being much 
inferior in hardiness to those from the eastern slope. 

In the course of three trips to Russia I learned that Rus- 
sian foresters had found the Scotch pine from western Europe, 
and from France and Germany, inferior in hardiness to the 
Scotch pine of northern Russia and extending into Siberia. 
Similar differences have been noticed between the west European 
and the east European and west Siberian form of the Norway 
spruce. 

Many more instances might be given of the fact that a spe- 
cies extending over a wide geographical range, varies widely in 
its capacity to resist cold. It shows then that nature must have 
done a work in acclimating plants so that it will endure a greater 
degree of cold. 

DeCandolle, in his “Origin of Cultivated Plants,” states: 
“The northern limits of wild species . . . have not changed with- 
in historic times, although the seeds are carried frequently and 
continually to north of each limit. Periods of more than four 
or five thousand years, or changements of form and duration, 
are needed, apparently, to produce a modification in a plant 


ES; ACCEIMATIZATION AN IMPOSSIBILITY? 71 


which will allow it to support a greater degree of cold.” This 
proposition means that plants cannot be bred so that they will 
be more resistant to cold by ordinary selection, as it would take 
too long. For hundreds of years on this continent, for ex- 
ample, we attempted to originate hardy grapes, apples, rasp- 
berries, plums and sweet cherries from the species originally 
brought over from the mild climate of southern and western 
Europe, but no success was obtained. Thousands of orchards, 
vineyards, and small fruit plantations, wrecked by our test win- 
ters in the prairie northwest, show that man’s efforts at ac- 
climatization were in vain. He could not secure a hardy plant 
from a tender one. In other words, we were starting on a 
ten-thousand-year job. Nature demands a century of centu- 
ties for the completion of some experiments. She can do such- 
work, we cannot. 

When it comes to the acclimatization of annual plants the 
problem is in the main of a different nature. A large late south- 
ern variety of Indian corn when moved too far north will of 
course be cut off by early frosts. If moved not too far north 
there is sure to be some extra early strain within the variety 
which the observing farmer will select for his next year’s seed, 
and in a few years he will have an extra early variety adapted 
to his locality. By always selecting for earliness the Indians 
were able to carry corn, a semi-tropical plant, from South Amer- 
ica north to Manitoba. This selection was accomplished by the 
Indians before Columbus discovered America. The Indians 
cured their seed corn by hanging it up in the smoke of their 
teepees to dry: and the best modern methods of curing seed 
corn by artificial heat are in a sense no improvement on this 
aboriginal method. In parts of south central America corn at- 
‘tains a height of twenty feet with kernels several times larger 
than our northern seed kernels, and it requires seven months 
to mature. At the northern limit in Manitoba it is perhaps five 
feet in height and requires three months to ripen, but in all this 
time we have simply shortened the season. Corn has not 
changed its nature in its requirement of extreme heat for ripening 
seed. As yet we have no corn that will endure frost to any 
extent, nor has northern Europe been able to originate a variety 


72 HORTICULTURAL, SOCIETY “OR NEWS Vorw 


from a variety from our Indian corn that will ripen. A new 
light has been thrown on this matter by the mutation theory of 
De Vries. We now know that a systematic species is made up 
of a great many elementary species which are perfectly dis- 
tinct from each other and absolutely fixed in type. While on 
my third trip to Russia in the summer of 1906, I visited the ex- 
periment station at Svalof, Sweden, where Dr. Nilsson has been 
conducting with such remarkable success a series of experiments 
in improving cereals by isolating each variety as an elementary 
species. The Swedish Select oats, for example, which is now so 
popular in the prairie northwest, was originated at this station. 
Dr. Nilsson considers that an ordinary variety of barley, for 
example, is made up in reality of many varieties differing 
slightly but each perfectly distinct from the others and constant 
from seed. These sub-varieties are really elementary species, 
i. e., they are mutations. When grown in certain sections for 
many years these hold their own in varying proportions from 
year to year; but when raised at the South, the extra early 
mutations will be crowded out to a considerable extent by the 
later mutations, which are usually more productive. If now this 
variety is transferred say four hundred miles further north, a 
readjustment of these varying proportions takes place very 
rapidly. The late mutations are crowded out because the seed 
does not mature, while the extra early ones, which were in a 
decided minority before, quickly gain the ascendency and very 
soon the variety is made up entirely of these extremely early 
sub-varieties. So that the acclimatization of annual plants is in 
reality not a changing in the plants themselves, but only the 
sifting out of the unfit elementary species. In fact, Dr. Nils- 
son believes that extra early mutations can be isolated at the 
South, as well as they can be at the extreme North, provided 
sufficient care is taken in the selection. The farther south a 
variety is raised, the greater the care needed to select only the 
very earliest mutations, if a variety for the far north is desired. 

It is worthy of note that the many failures in farming in 
the cold, semi-arid regions of the prairie northwest are due to 
the fact that the plants cultivated were from the milder climate 
of western Europe. In other words, it is unwise to farm in a 


iss ACCEIMATIZATION AN IMPOSSIBILITY? 73 


dry, cold climate with wet, warm climate plants. This is a very 
fundamental proposition. The farmers of America have spent 
hundreds of millions in the vain effort to acclimate certain 
plants. Let it now be placed on record that my study of horti- 
cultural problems in the prairie northwest has taught me to have 
no faith in the possibility of acclimating plants to a greater de- 
gree of cold than that to which they are accustomed in their 
original habitat. I believe that those who are attempting to 
acclimate the common alfalfa, brought over from northern Africa 
by the Spaniards to South America and thence to California, 
to the conditions of our prairie northwest, are starting on a ten- 
thousand-year job and hence impossible. This led me as the 
first agricultural explorer from the United States Department of 
Agriculture to attempt in 1897-1808 an overland trip of two 
thousand miles through northern Turkestan, western China and 
southern Siberia in the endeavor to find a hardy form of the 
common alfalfa. Blizzards interfered and the trip was a severe 
test of endurance. Asa result of the trip Turkestan alfalfa was 
brought to America for the first time for the spring of 1808. 
This initial exportation of eighteen thousand pounds I under- 
stand from good authority, has now risen to nearly five million 
pounds exported annually, the larger part of which goes to South 
America and about a hundred and fifty tons to the United 
States, and the amount is fast increasing. Turkestan alfalfa 
has proven to be more resistant to cold and drought than the 
ordinary alfalfa. But I was not satisfied that I had secured 
the most northern form of the alfalfa, so in a six-months’ trip 
in the summer and fall of last year, I made another attempt and 
found that there were other species, yellow flowered, extending 
north of the common alfalfa limits one to two thousand miles 
across Asiatic Siberia. I only hope it will help to solve the 
alfalfa question on the American continent and that it will carry 
the alfalfa belt north as far as we care to farm. 


SUMMARY. 


My belief concisely stated is that to breed plants so that 
they will endure a greater degree of cold is a work demanding 
such a great period of time that it is for nature rather than 


74 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORE 


man to undertake. The only way in which it might possibly 
occur is by some great mutation but so far, out of many in- 
stances, as in the case of the apple, raspberry, grape, alfalfa and 
clover, no noteworthy progress has been made in making plants 
hardier by selection from tender stock. The occasional test win- 
ters, such as that of February, 1899, in which millions of dol- 
lars’ worth of alfalfa were destroyed, indicate that it is not 
feasible to get hardy plants by selection from tender plants. In 
each and every case it is starting on a work that may take many 
thousands of years for completion, and the test winters may 
compel us to begin all over again. Nature takes a century of 
centuries for some experiments. Let us leave such work to her. 

But, you may ask, how may we get hardiness into tender 
plants? I look upon hardiness as something easily transmitted 
in crossing and I am working extensively along this line in my 
work of raising seedlings of native northwestern fruits by the 
hundreds of thousands. . Hardiness may turn out to be a unit 
character obeying Mendel’s law of heredity. In plants, such as 
plums and apples, which are propagated by some mode of divi- 
sion of the original plant such as budding or grafting, we will 
not need to go further than to secure the original hybrid that 
has the characters we desire. But this line of thought is not 
within the scope of this Conference, as we are discussing ac- 
~climatization and not hybridization. 


The President—The paper is now open for discussion. 

Mr. Siebrecht—I wish to say that as a boy and a young man, very 
often I grew Indian corn in the University in Germany, from English 
corn. There were thirty varieties that were adapted. That was in 
northern Germany, in Hanover. 

The President—1 think that this challenge from Dr. Hansen about 
this law means that no annual is admissible as an illustration. Dr. 
Hansen himself has spoken about the Indian corn. Indian corn does not 
bear at all upon it. It must be something that can bear through the 
winter, so when he spoke of this law, I said to myself, there are a 
thousand illustrations, but as I thought of it, I realized that no annual 
counts, because an annual does not bear through the winter, and no 
hybrid counts. And so when you eliminate the hybrids, it is the kind of 
law which you cannot meet, because you are always uncertain of your 
ground. While he spoke I thought of Indian corn, and I thought of a 
score of things, but they are not admissible. Now, let us see what we can 


rs) ACCLIMATIZATION AN IMPOSSIBILITY ? 75 


find. So far as our information goes, the cherry is a native of Persia, 
and here is an illustration which conflicts with the law. When I have 
eaten such magnificent cherries, as I have in Scandinavian countries and 
in England, the same latitude as our Labrador, and find a thing which we 
have no thought of hybdridizing, I think that the law is met there com- 
pletely. So far as we know, the peach is a native of Persia, with the 
exception that we have found it is also apparently a native of Manchuria. 
Whether the Persian peach came from Manchuria, or the Manchurian came 
from Persia, in prehistoric times, we do not know, but I think we have 
a right to assume that the peach is a native of Persia, and the Manchurian 
peach in some way strayed from Persia. If that thing it true, there is no 
comflict of the law. So far as we know, the currant is a native of the 
southern countries of Europe. It gets its name from Greece, and the 
currant is a native of Corinth. This is one of the laws which eliminates 
evidence. It is like the criminal trial to-day, in that you cannot introduce 
any evidence ;—this is eliminated and that 1s excluded, and you have got 
nothing and the fellow gets free; so it is with this law, when you come 
to think about it. I am going to stand by the cherry and the peach and 
the currant, unless you can prove their origin from somewhere except the 
historic origin. 

Dr. Hansen—You will have to eliminate the currants, Mr. President. 
But the currant which we buy in the market, and is grown on the coast 
of Corinth, is not a currant at all, but a grape. But our currant is a 
native of that region. We call it a currant, and what we call a currant 
comes from Asia Minor. 

Mr. Munson—I think the position of Dr. Hansen can be sustained, 
if he would only give us the definition of procedure. If he means that I 
should pick a half a bushel of wheat out of a pile grown upon a field of 
wheat, indiscriminately, and sow it, and from the pile grown on that 
field, take another half bushel and sow that, and so on, it might take four 
or five thousand years to get a hardy wheat, and I can hardly conceive 
you would get one very hardy then. 

The President—But you have got to get your wheat and leave it 
out of doors during the winter. You have got to have that seed carried 
through the winter. 

Dr. Hansen—Let us have the whole thing. Give us the whole 
thought, whatever you have. 

Mr. Munson—Vake indiscriminately a lot of apple seeds out of an 
orchard, and plant another seedling orchard, and then take the seed out 
of that indiscriminately, an equal quantity, and continue to plant in that 
same quantity right along. You may take the seedlings from the orchard 
a thousand generations ahead, into a hardier climate, and they would be 
no more inured than the first one you started from. Now, I am on the 
Doctor’s side that far, but suppose that I take that half bushel of apple 
seeds and plant an orchard of it here or in Texas and out of the most 
vigorous of those trees, I take a like quantity of seeds and plant them in 


76 HORFICULTURAL SOCIETY ‘OF “NEW YOR 


an orchard in Kansas, I would not have as many trees in that orchard 
for a few years as I would in Texas, if they were adapted to Texas in 
the first place, I suppose. I take half a bushel of them and plant them 
in Iowa or Nebraska and continue to travel northward, I will have less 
and less trees, but I will have some apple seeds that will end after 
several years in having apple seeds that will survive in Iowa and Ne- 
braska, and this, if we accept it for your application, will kill all our 
experimental work. We stand upon the foundation of the survival of 
the fittest in all directions. Take the iron pea of the south, a selection 
out of all peas, the common pea, the Whipple pea, etc. Out of all varieties 
of them, one was found that resisted, and that was selected, and now 
we have them growing in fields full of nematode and not a pea touched. 
We are using it as fast as we can get the seed. It has not been known 
to be attacked by the nematode. 

Mr. Siebrecht—Is this the same as the cow pea? 

Mr. Munson—The same as the cow pea, known as the iron pea. 
Now, we know this, that there are certain varieties of vinifera grape in 
Texas where we go as low as 15 degrees below zero, some fifteen or 
twenty varieties that have stood that temperature, while there are others 
that will not go below zero. Now, I am sure if I should take that one that 
has endured the most cold and take pure seed—that is, its seed fertilized 
by itself—and plant, say in Arizona or Kansas, I might find a few that 
would stand the winter there; or find some hardier in that lot, and con- 
tinue to plant a few generations farther and farther north, I would find 
a hardier crop, but I would not have a species. A transformation to an- 
other species is impossible. I am confident of that, but it is these little 
selections and the selecting as rapidly as the breeding of the plant will 
permit, that enables us to make any progress, and it is through that, that 
we do make all our progress with reference to this matter, I believe. 

Dr. Hansen—I have taken the so-called hardy peaches of Iowa that 
have been raised for forty years by the seedling method, and have tried 
those in Dakota. The trouble is that I don’t get a single individual to 
stand the winter. They all get killed. I don’t get any to stand. I have 
to start over again. The western people tried our box elder and they 
winter-killed. They were about to give it up and they got the seed from 
Canada and it winter-killed. Then they got their seed from St. Louis. 
There is an example where they began too far away in the first place. 
What do you mean by a few generations? The generation of vinifera 
seedling would be how long? Five years? 

Mr. Siebrecht—Four or five years in its natural course. You could 
make it bear in three years. 

Dr. Hansen—Ten generations would be fifty years. The only trouble 
about that peach is, are we sure about Persia being the natural home? 

The President—We do not know. 

Dr. Hansen—They are a hardier form. I believe northern China. 
Is not that considered about the native home rather than Persia? 


is; ACCEIMATIZATION, AN IMPOSSIBILITY? er 


The President—We cannot tell. Of course, it is Persia or Manchuria. 

Mr. Siebrecht—Something just came into my mind about English 
walnuts. I know an English walnut tree that is, I believe, fourteen or 
fifteen inches in diameter, the stem or trunk, and I believe a perfect tree, 
and which bears anywhere from four to seven bushels a year, and that 
stands right on the heights, not very far from Andrews’ Monument, 
Tarrytown, part of the old place that formed part of the estate of 
Pocantico Hills, belonging to John D. Rockefeller. I guess it has been 
sheltered since it was a little tree put out there, by some spruce trees and 
pines planted to the northwest of it. No doubt they have sheltered it 
somewhat, but that is a perfect tree, and where trees have been brought 
from down south and from the other side that would not grow here, 
walnuts taken from that tree as grown here, have proved hardy. That 
sides in with what Professor Munson says, that you can make it hardier 
and hardier. That tree stands there and it is the finest in this country, 
I don’t care where you go. There are some down in Freehold, New 
Jersey. I planted some there twenty or thirty years ago, and they are 
good, but not so good as this. There were some good ones around here, 
but a very cold winter such as we had a few years ago, killed them out; 
they start again however. 

The President—We do not know where the original rose-bush grew, 
as it grew in the garden of Eden, but there are certain varieties, such as 
the China rose, and others—but the difficulty with the rose is that we 
have no pure rose to-day. They are all hybrids. There is the Bourbon 
rose. The Bourbon rose is the most distinct and probably the purest- 
blooded. It originated on the Island of Bourbon, and it is in conflict 
with this supposed law. That is a very good illustration. There is the 
pecan nut of America. The pecan nut is believed to be a native of 
Texas and has strayed up along the Mississippi valley until it is found in 
Missouri, and isn’t Missouri the most northern limit of the pecan? 

Dr. Evans—The Wabash Valley, Indiana. 

The President—I have never seen any pecan north of Missouri. 
I was going to give that as an instance of it, but we do not know, of 
course, that it has come up there from Texas. 

Mr. Munson—Il have seen it growing in the valleys of Illinois. 

The President—l have got pecans growing here. I was going to 
cite that as an instance, but if they have got them in Missouri, why 
then, we don’t know. Then beside, so many of them are hybrids. Let 
me instance that, since Mr. Siebrecht spoke about the English walnut. 
The “English” walnut that we know is the walnut that we get from 
the Mediterranean. We do not get any from England. They are called 
Grenoble nuts. We get our best nuts from South Africa, and the north- 
ern shore of the Mediterranean. If it is hardy enough to live, it is not 
hardy enough to fruit. It does not fruit properly under ordinary con- 
ditions. Now, the black walnut belongs to the same family, one of the 
hardiest trees. A few years ago I conceived the idea, now, why not 


78 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 


raise hybrids from the black walnut and the English walnut? There 
is no difficulty about the crossing, and now with a sufficient number of 
specimens, we can get enough with the hardiness and vigor and fruit- 
fulness of the black walnut with the quality and thin shell of the English 
walnut. So I went to work to have hybrids made, and now have several 
hundred growing. I picked the pollen from the English walnut and 
fertilized the blossom of the black walnut, and took the pollen from a 
black walnut and fertilized the blossom from the English walnut, and I 
have these trees growing now. If I can get out of three or four hundred 
specimens, one tree that has the hardiness and vigor and prolificness of 
the black walnut, with the quality of the English walnut, I will have 
lots of fun, but you see I will get nothing as an illustration, because 
the moment you get to the field of hybridization, you are outside of this 
matter. I do not think you can go by the law. It is like a great many 
other laws, the spirit may be good, but the letter of the law you can- 
not hold to. Now, right in this line, we have Dr. Evans of the Depart- 
ment of Agriculture who has a paper on “Experiments in Plant Acclima- 
tization in Alaska,’ to present later and it may throw some light on this 
subject. 

Here is’ a paper on “Developing Hardy Fruits for the North 
Mississippi Valley,’ by Mr. Samuel B. Green. Mr. Barron, our Secretary, 
will read that paper. 

Gentlemen, I regret that I must leave you now, but I would ask 
Mr. Siebrecht to take the chair. 

Mr. Siebrecht takes the chair. 


The following paper, by Samuel B. Green, was then read by the 
Secretary: 


Developing Hardy Fruits for the North 
Mississippi Valley. 
By Pror. SAMUEL B. GREEN, 
University of Minnesota. 

The varieties of fruits that were introduced into this country 
by the original settlers, while they often proved of value for a 
few years, have generally been superseded by better kinds that 
have originated in the section in which they are grown. That 
portion of the United States commonly known as the Central 
Northwest, including the States of Wisconsin, Minnesota, the 
Dakotas and northern Iowa and Illinois, have had more diffi- 
culty in getting varieties of fruits suitable to their conditions than 
perhaps any other portion of this country. This has been due 
to their cold winters and especially to an occasional extremely 
cold winter in which the ground is bare of snow. The climate 
of this section too is generally drier in summer and not as well 
adapted to the fruits of western Europe as the portions of the 
United States lying east or even those sections near the west 
coast. 

One of the most important of these horticultural problems 
is presented in the apple, the old varieties of which are not 
successfully grown in this section. About forty years ago Peter 
Gideon undertook at Excelsior, Minnesota, to solve this problem 
by combining the Pyrus baccata and its hybrids with the Pyrus 
Malus, and thus getting hardiness and good quality. In the 
course of this work he discovered the Wealthy apple, which is 
to-day a leading variety over a large extent of country; but the 
dozen or more other varieties (which are undoubted crosses 
between the P. baccata and P. Malus) that he sent out as being 
especially adapted for the cold Northwest have proven unsatis- 
factory in many ways, largely on account of their susceptibil- 
ity to fire blight. The work which Gideon undertook to do was 


80 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YOR 


done in such a thorough way that there is no necessity of repeat- 
ing it. The only important variety of apple which he did origi- 
nate has been of so much value to the State of Minnesota, and 
elsewhere, that it has repaid a hundred fold all the money the 
State of Minnesota ever put into the experiment. 

Other devoted horticulturists have put their time and means 
into similar lines of work, and often with very little in the way 
of remuneration except the consciousness of having accom- 
plished something for the general betterment of mankind which, 
for most of these men, was reward enough. Among those 
who have especially benefited the pomology of this section by 
originating apples is Chas. G. Patten, of Charles City, lowa, 
whose most important contribution has been Patten’s Greening, 
but who has also introduced most excellent varieties in his 
University and Iowa Beauty. 

H. M. Lyman, of Excelsior, Minnesota, began about twenty- 
five years ago to raise seedlings of the Wealthy, and devoted 
quite a portion of his farm at Excelsior to an experimental 
apple orchard. He originated a number of very excellent seed- 
lings in the course of this work. Perhaps the most important 
and valuable of them all is a winter apple known as the Evelyn. 

The Minnesota State Horticultural Society has made a 
special point of encouraging the raising of seedling apples and 
to this end offers liberal premiums for desirable seedlings ex- 
hibited at its winter meetings. The State Agricultural Society 
also offers liberal premiums for the same object. The Horti- 
cultural Society, in addition to these annual premiums, also 
offers $1,000 for a variety of apple that shall be as hardy as the 
Hibernal, as good a keeper as the Malinda, and of as good quality 
as the Wealthy. There are no limitations on this premium, and 
the officers of the society would be extremely glad of the chance 
to award it to any variety fulfilling the requirements, no matter 
what its source. The State Horticultural Society in conjunction 
with the Experiment Station has distributed to interested parties 
apple and plum seeds and seedlings and many experimenters 
have been thus interested in this line of work. 

As the result of the work of the Horticultural Society and 
the Horticultural. Division of the Experiment Station in en- 


DEVELOPING HARDY FRUITS. 81 


couraging the raising of seedling apples, it is quite common for 
fifty or one hundred plates of good seedlings to be exhibited at 
the September meeting of the State Agricultural Society. Some 
of these are of much promise. 

The early settlers of this section found that the plums with 
which they were familiar in Europe, or in the Eastern States, 
were not hardy here, but that the native plums produced an enor- 
mous amount of fruit each year which was gathered in large 
quantities by the settlers. This fruit in its native state is per- 
haps one of the highest developed of any native fruit, and 
it was natural for the settlers to select the better trees from the 
woods and transplant them to their gardens. As a result of 
this work, and also of encouragement in the raising of seedling 
plums, we have now quite a list of plums that are well adapted 
for this section, and some of them are of very excellent quality 
and desirable for marketing. A new class of plums is now com- 
ing to us as the result of the combining of the native wild plum 
(P. Americana) with the dwarf Sandcherry (P. Besseyi). From 
this has come the so-called Compass cherry and a number of 
other fruits of considerable interest, and of probable value. 
The work of combining our native plum with the Japanese 
plums, to which it is closely related, has hardly been touched 
upon, but it seems to offer one of the most promising lines for 
experiment, and the Experiment Station of the University is 
putting a considerable amount of time on to the work of securing 
combinations of this sort. We think that from this work we 
ought to get plums of large size and good quality that are per- 
fectly hardy, which will add very much to the pomology of this 
section. 

We find that strawberries in this section are much more 
liable to be injured in winter than in the States farther east where 
the winters are milder, although when the beds are thoroughly 
protected here with straw they will produce heavy crops, and the 
Experiment Station is trying to obtain a hardier variety of 
strawberries than we now have, by crossing our cultivated 
kinds and some of the hardier forms. 

The cultivated kinds of raspberries must be covered here 
in winter or they are liable to be severely injured. It is im- 


82 HORTICULTURAL ‘SOCIETY OF NEW ‘YORK 


portant to secure hardier-sorts, and it seems as if it was prob- 
able that this might be obtained by crossing our better cultivated 
kinds on some of the native sorts, which are quite hardy. 


The grapes of pure Labrusca parentage are often success- 
fully cultivated in favorable locations in this section, but in 
severe locations and in severe winters they are injured in 
winter, unless laid down on the ground and protected, and even 
then the roots may be injured. It is desirable to secure a har- 
dier kind of grape that will stand our winters, and be good 
enough in quality for general use. We have made something 
of a start in this direction by securing crossings between some 
of our cultivated Labruscas and our native V. riparia, and as - 
a result have secured varieties that are perfectly hardy and ex- 
tremely productive, and while the quality of these grapes is 
not up to the standard Labrusca sorts, yet they are a great 
addition to the general list of cultivated fruits suitable for our 
farmers. 


What I have outlined will give you, in a general way, some 
idea of the problems that present themselves to the horticul- 
turists of this section. The forms of fruit we now have have 
originated more or less by chance and largely through the sac- 
rificing efforts of individuals who have profited very little, 
personally, from their labors. Our horticulturists have had in 
1ind for some time the enlargement of the work of fruit breed- 
ing, and taking it up in a systematic way, and on a broad scale 
under suitable supervision. The matter was presented to our 
legislature last winter, and an appropriation of $16,000 was se- 
cured for the purchase of a farm suitable for this purpose. One 
hundred acres has been obtained and will be suitably equipped 
with buildings. On this tract of land we propose to carry on, 
but on a larger scale and more systematically, the work which 
has been done heretofore by individuals. We feel that we have 
had sufficient experience now in this line of endeavor so that 
we know where and how to work, in order to obtain the best 
results. We shall aim to keep careful records of the work done 
and to determine general laws underlying this work, which needs 
so much to be systematized. 


DEVELOPING HARDY FRUITS. 83 


The Chairman—Gentlemen, you have heard the valuable paper by 
Mr. Green. Is there any discussion about it? 

Dr. Hansen—Mr. Chairman, I might say that in the work of com- 
bining the size of fruit of the Japanese plum with a native plum, we have 
made great progress. We had one this year that is excellent in qualities. 
It is as good as any plum we have ever eaten. As to the strawberry, we 
have been working a combination of native and wild strawberries with the 
best cultivated varieties. We have had fully ten thousand seedlings in 
that work and we have a great many varieties saved out of that vast 
lot—possibly over two hundred varieties—that we are working with 
still further, so that we have been able to secure strawberries in “large 
numbers, that endure forty degrees below zero in winter. That is the 
test as to the hardiness. We never cover the strawberries. With the 
raspberry, we find in every respect the seedlings of all eastern varieties 
utterly failed, but the hybrids are perfectly hardy without any winter pro- 
tection. Seven thousand seedlings have borne fruit and we have some ex- 
cellent varieties and others coming on. Out of these seven thousand we 
expect the raspberry to be settled. We hope so at least. We have been 
working very successfully in that line, and I am pleased to see that 
work will be pushed in other States as well. It is certainly true that the 
only way we can get hardiness into our tender fruit is by crossing with 
species that are already hardy. 

The Chairman—Yes, it would seem to resolve itself upon that point; 
our motto is, as in the Society of American Florists, “The art itself is 
nature.” We assist nature, and I believe it resolves itself entirely upon 
that; we have to assist nature. We have to take the things we find at 
our hand, and with those do something. That seems to be the whole 
experience of everybody. You find your hardiest strawberries, and you 
take the better quality of strawberry, and cross. 

Mr. Macoun—Mr. Chairman, this was brought out in Mr. Green’s 
paper, what they are working for in the northwest, Minnesota, Wisconsin 
and the Dakotas. That is, Minnesota and Wisconsin particularly, which 
is the country of winter apples, they are working for a winter apple which 
will be good in quality and hardiness and will be productive, and they 
have offered one thousand dollars to the person who will bring forward 
a winter apple which will fulfil certain rules they have laid down, namely, 
that it will be perfectly hardy and productive, etc., and they have not 
got anyone yet to take the reward. We have been studying the situation 
a good deal at Ottawa, and have found certain facts in connection with 
the hardiness of trees, which we consider principles, which we are work- 
ing on. In the first place, we find it is absolutely necessary to have an 
early maturing tree in order to get hardiness, and then we find in nearly 
every case, an early maturing tree means early maturing fruit, that is, 
fruit which ripens in the summer or autumn, which, of course, we do 
not want for a winter apple, but we find there are varieties which begin 
to mellow about November or early September, but which will hold up 


84 HORTICULTURAL S@EFETY OF WihW ORK. 


until the winter, “1d which have a texture different from other apples 
which enables them to hold up during the winter, and we are working 
on those apples, recrossing those with other kinds. We find that prac- 
tically all the winter apples which originated within fifty or sixty miles 
of our station, are of that character, that is, they are apples which mature 
early in the season, or which will keep all winter, under good cellar 
conditions, and that is the point I make where the weakness of planting 
and breeding has been in the past. We have been bringing them from 
hardy apples like the Dutchess in order to get winter apples, thinking 
that would give the winter breed from the Dutchess. Well, having winter 
breeds growing all around them, the chances are very slight. On the 
other hand, we have been breeding from the King, the Baldwin, and so 
forth, thinking we would strike a hardier apple from these hardy varieties, 
but the chances are very slight that we will, but what I think we ought 
to do is to take the seedling that we have, approaching winter apples as 
much as possible; they are natural crosses between the tender summer 
kind and the hardy winter kind. Then go on breeding from them; 
and that is what we are doing. I could name many others, the Milwaukee 
apple which originated with us, the Baxter, the Rufus, and several others 
which originated in Northern Ontario, which seem to fulfil all condi- 
tions, except in quality. On the other hand, there is no reason in my 
opinion, why we should not have the highest tender quality. 

The Chairman—I think the time will come when we will get it. 

Mr. Munson—I have a few facts which might as well be stated here 
as any other place. Data and the clear cut defined facts are the ones 
we wish more than any other, free from any theory. There is one thing 
that is well known. I have known in my own experience several times, 
in cutting plants of strawberries of several kinds, and taking them to 
Texas and transplanting them, that for the first season they are weak 
in resisting drought and heat; and the same variety (of course prop- 
agated from its runners) becomes hardier the longer it remains there. So 
we find this has been done; taking this from our plant that has been 
there several years, and getting plants from, say Northern Iowa and 
planting under the same conditions, we found our plant endured much 
better the first year or two. 

The Chairman—You are getting acclimated. 

Mr. Munson—The point I want to make is this, that there is a 
variation which has the power of resisting climatic influences. Variation 
takes place, and I wish to state the entire number of facts before I make 
the point. With reference to trees of various varieties, a species has al- 
ways been tried, Texas grown, planted in the same orchard beside the 
seed of northern grown trees. I know of no exception. Invariably the 
northern grown trees come out several days before the southern grown 
trees of the same kind. Looking over the orchard, you will see that 
the others are dormant, and there is no difference that I can see, 
except that one is grown north and the other south, for several years. 


> 


DZVELOPING E:APPY FRUITS. 85 


It is this, that if there is a variation under climat' condition to any 
practical extent, add those little variations constantly for a long series of 
years, a number of generations, and may we not get a very substantial 
change, making a new adaptation for climatic influences? 

The Chairman—I think that is what we will have to do. I think it 
is the solution of it. I cannot see anything else. I know it, and you 
know it too. You take our potatoes. We bring them from Maine to get 
them early. You take Early Rose and bring them from Connecticut. 
Your Maine potatoes will rot. 

Secretary Barron—Speaking about potatoes, there is a problem in 
adaptation to climate, if you compare the American varieties with the 
European varieties. You take the American varieties of Solanum tubero- 
sum across the ocean, and all through Europe they flourish amazingly; but 
you take the European type, the English varieties over here, and you are 
lucky if you harvest the weight of your seed. Dr. Hexamer made ex- 
tensive experiments one year. He gathered in Europe every French, 
Irish and English variety he could get. He planted them and could get 
nothing at all. I have tried the same thing myself with European varieties 
and it utterly failed every time, yet I know for a fact the other side of 
the case is all right. 

Mr. Macoun—We have some English sorts that have beaten our 
American ones. We have the Dalmeny Beauty. It is one of their early 
varieties there and it is doing splendidly. It is among the most produc- 
tive potatoes we have. We have had it for twenty years. It is one of 
the best we have and resists blight. We have tried hundreds of varieties 
from Europe, and as a rule they are as you stated, but there are ex- 
ceptions to the rule. 

Mr. Munson—lf vou took the European varieties at almost the same 
latitude as those you have here, then you have made practically no change. 

The Chairman—I was going to say that, but I think we all under- 
stand that very well. 

The time has come for us to close, gentlemen. There are some an- 
nouncements which the Secretary will make. 

The Secretary then announced the titles of the additional papers on 
the program which would be taken up at the next session. 

The Secretary also announced a complimentary excursion up the 
Hudson River, to take place the following day. 

The Conference then adjourned to meet again at 10 A. M., October 
3rd, at the New York Botanical Garden, Bronx Park. 


SECOND SESSION. 


Held in the Museum Building, New York Botanical Gar- 
den, October 3rd, 1907, at 10 A. M., the President, James Wood, 
presiding. 


86 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY "OF “NEW “MORK 


The President—Gentlemen, we are informed that there are quite 
a number of gentlemen on the grounds who will be in later, but time is 
going all the while and perhaps we had better consider some of the 
routine matters first. 

The Secretary has quite a number of papers that have been con- 
tributed for the conference and he would like to ask your pleasure in 
regard to what shall be read. 

Of course, the chief value of this conference is in the bringing out 
of these papers for publication. In no other way is it found possible to 
get such a mass of valuable material collected in one form and one 
publication, as in the proceedings of a conference like this. 

If these are published in the bulletins of various institutions, they 
are detached and you cannot examine them collectively. You do not 
get the concensus of opinion on these subjects which you get individually, 
but in a publication of this kind, you can sum up and get the judgment 
of a great many able men all in one volume. 

If the Secretary will please state what he has in hand, we will 
dispose of them now to save time. When others come in, we will con- 
sider other matters. 

(The Secretary then read the titles of various papers he had re- 
ceived. ) 

Mr. Nash moved and Dr. Evans seconded, that these matters be 
referred to the editor for disposition. Motion carried. 

The President—Now, Dr. Evans, will you be so good as to present 
your paper? 


The following paper was then read by Walter H. Evans: 


Experiments in Plant Acclimatization in Alaska. 


By WALTER H. Evans, 
United States Department of Agriculture. 


During the summer of 1897 the writer visited Alaska for 
the purpose of making an agricultural reconnaissance with a 
view to the establishment of one or more experiment stations in 
that Territory. At that time there was no agriculture and very 
little gardening in the country. As a result of that visit a cen- 
tral experiment station was established at Sitka, with branch 
stations at Kenai, Copper Center, and Rampart. The results of 
the endeavors to develop agriculture in Alaska have been pub- 
lished in the annual reports and other publications of the Office 
of Experiment Stations of the United States Department of 
Agriculture. The decision to recommend the establishment of 
the stations was based upon direct observations, a study of the 
native and introduced plants, and analogy between known condi- 
tions in Alaska and those in countries in Europe. 

In searching for evidence that agriculture might flourish, 
the data found were very meager. During the Russian occupa- 
tion some desultory attempts to develop agriculture were made 
at a few points, but the records left are conflicting and show 
such a lack of careful planning and attention to the experiments 
that but little could be learned from that source. The Russians 
did leave fairly complete data regarding temperatures and 
rainfall covering a period of fifty years or more, that proved of 
service in determining the available temperatures for plant 
growth. The settlers at the time of the visit were mostly en- 
gaged in trading, fishing, or mining, and little was to be learned 
from them. Recourse was had to a study of the native and in- 
troduced economic plants. Careful searches were made about a 
number of villages and lists were made of the introduced plants 


88 HORTICULTURAL . SOCIETY: OF | NEW “YORE 


that had survived and become established. Prominent among 
these were red and white clover, blue grass, and timothy. In 
several instances wheat, barley, and oats were found self-sown 
from feed or manure. In some cases these had made good 
growth and in some instances had ripened their grain. The few 
gardens existing about the towns were studied and additional 
data were secured. Most of the common hardy vegetables were 
found growing, although the varieties were plainly not of the 
best, and their cultivation was often neglected. Enough evi- 
dence was secured to warrant the establishment of stations that 
would more fully study and develop the agriculture of the region. 

Among the first experiments planned after the establish- 
ment of the stations were some to test the adaptability of garden 
and field crops. Through the cooperation of the Bureau of 
Plant Industry of the United States Department of Agriculture 
seeds of a large number of varieties were obtained from northern 
Europe and elsewhere. These have been under observation at 
the several stations for some years and it is now possible to 
recommend varieties for planting that may reasonably be ex- 
pected to grow and give adequate returns in average seasons. 
This has been of great value, especially to those who have small 
gardens about their homes. Formerly the seed supplies came 
from San Francisco or Puget Sound ports, and in many instances 
the varieties were not adapted to the more northern climate. A 
few specific results of the investigations may be of interest. With 
potatoes a large number of varieties have been tested, and for 
the past three years the variety Freeman has proved the best. 
In 1906 at the Sitka Station this variety yielded at the rate of 
379 bushels per acre, followed closely by Gold Coin and Early 
Ohio. On the part of some varieties of potatoes there appears 
to be a tendency to a deterioration in quality after a few years’ 
cultivation in Alaska, and investigations are in progress to deter- 
mine its causes. Investigations have been carried on with cab- 
bages, and the type represented by the Early Jersey Wakefield 
has proved the best for planting. The Drumhead and Flat 
Dutch types have almost uniformly failed at the station. Of 
peas the varieties Alaska and First and Best have given satisfac- 
tion and are now quite generally planted. 


EXPERIMENTS: IN ALASKA. 89 


In addition to seeking for the best varieties of vegetables 
that were already grown, the stations have sought to introduce 
others, with considerable success. Kale, Brussels sprouts, Broad 
Windsor beans, rhubarb, cress, and various flavoring herbs have 
been distributed throughout the Territory and are being cul- 
tivated with marked success. In the gardens of Alaska all of 
the important hardy vegetables may be grown, and in some fa- 
vored localities some of the more tender ones, as string beans, 
cucumbers, and tomatoes, are produced. 

Considerable attention is being given to the introduction of 
hardy fruits, and about 12,000 fruit trees and shrubs have been 
distributed from the station nursery at Sitka. These consist 
of early maturing varieties of apples, crab apples, plums, cher- 
ries, raspberries, currants, gooseberries, and strawberries. Some 
varieties of all of these except the apples have already fruited at 
Sitka, and this year some of the apples bloomed and set fruit, 
but no report has been received as to their ripening. In con- 
nection with the fruit investigations, plant breeding work with 
strawberries, raspberries, and currants has been begun. In 
Alaska there are probably two. distinct indigenous species of 
strawberries, one a coast species, the other occurring in the in- 
terior. Experiments have been under way with the coast form 
for a number of years. Plants were brought from Yakutat, 
where wild strawberries abound, to Sitka and were grown in 
rich earth for several years without fruiting. Upon transplant- 
ing them to poor, sandy soil they fruited abundantly. This spe- 
cies grows best in gravelly soil, is extremely hardy, and the ber- 
ries are of excellent flavor. It has one serious drawback; the 
peduncles have the habit of strongly curving downward after 
fertilization, thus forcing the berries into the sand. Crosses 
have been made between this form and some of the best culti- 
vated varieties, using the wild species as the staminate parent, 
and several hundred seedlings resulting from this hybridization 
are now under observation. Similar experiments have been 
begun with the smaller form that was secured in the interior of 
the country. Seedlings resulting from crossing the cultivated 
raspberry, which is frequently winter-killed, and the native sal- 
mon berry (Rubus spectabilis) are being grown and some should 


go HORTICULTURAL ~ SOCIETY (OF, NEWS YOR: 


fruit next season. Similar experiments are being made with 
currants and other small fruits. 

The climate of the coast region of Alaska is insular in char- 
acter and is distinguished by a heavy rainfall. In the interior 
the climate is continental, with less rainfall and higher summer 
temperatures. On this account investigations in grain growing 
are confined to the stations located in the valleys of the Yukon 
‘and Copper rivers. In the Copper River Valley early autumn 
frosts have destroyed much of the grain, but in no season has 
there been a complete failure to mature some portion of the . 
crop. At the Rampart Station, which is situated in the Yukon 
Valley, some 350 miles from the mouth of that river and only 
about 60 miles from the Arctic Circle, cereals have ripened every 
year since the establishment of the station in 1900. For each of 
these stations the earliest varieties of cereals have been secured 
and from each of the more promising the earliest ripening heads 
have been gathered for seed. This procedure will be continued 
until local varieties are developed that are suited to the aver- 
age season in Alaska. Last year three varieties of winter rye, 
one of winter wheat, three of spring-sown barley, and two of 
oats matured at Rampart, and a recent letter states that the 
grains this season are even better than last year, all varieties 
ripening except some common oats that were sown for hay. At 
each of the interior stations experiments with vegetables are 
being conducted along about the same lines as described for the 
work at Sitka. 

In the work of acclimatization in Alaska the problems are 
twofold: to discover or develop varieties adapted to the moist 
coast region where the summer temperature is rather low, vary- 
ing but little from day to day, and varieties for the interior 
where the growing seasons are shorter, the maximum tempera- 
tures higher, and the range of temperature much greater. In 
some portions of the interior the summer rainfall is deficient and 
that adds another factor to be considered. That some progress 
has been made is shown by the somewhat hasty review of the 
results of eight years’ work. The greatest difficulty experienced 
in the Alaskan investigations is not due to climatic conditions, 
but rather to the ignorance or prejudice of certain individuals 


EXPERIMENTS IN ALASKA. oI 


who, comparing conditions in Alaska with those of the great 
Mississippi Valley or the Pacific Coast region of Washington, 
Oregon, and California, see nothing possible for Alaskan agri- 
culture. Should the comparison be made with Norway, Sweden 
and Finland, which lie between the same parallels of latitude as 
Alaska, and where dwell more than 10,000,000 inhabitants, the 
contrast would not be so great and the possibility of agriculture 
along similar lines would seem more probable. 


The President—The paper is now open for discussion. 

Dr. Britton—I am interested in Dr. Evans’ discussion of the con- 
ditions in Alaska. I would like to ask him in regard to the strawberries, 
ii they both belong to the same genus. 

Dr. Evans—\l have not seen the one from the interior, but the one 
we have has seven leaves instead of five leaves. In the ordinary form of 
strawberry, there are five leaves. 

The President—This paper of Dr. Evans’ is very interesting to me, 
particularly for my sympathy with Alaska. I think it is a disgrace for the 
United States Government, that Alaska has been so shamefully neglected, 
and I hear with delight the work that Dr. Evans there has been doing 
in the establishment of an Agricultural Experiment Station, because it 
will lead to something more, and Alaska may be given, in process of time, 
by our Congress, a regular territorial government. The neglect of Alaska 
has affected all these interests in a great many ways. When we are 
considering the subject that Dr. Evans has given to us, we run right 
into Mr. Hick’s field, of the thermal lines affecting the field of moisture. 
When this country purchased Alaska from Russia, we knew, if possible, 
less about it then than we do to-day, and the matter of the Pacific 
currents was not understood at all, and it was all that far-off region 
that nobody knew anything about, but the fact is that the Pacific current 
affects the climate of Alaska'as the Atlantic current affects the climate of 
Europe and every part of Norway on the other side of the Atlantic, and 
we cannot judge by the latitude in this matter. I think, right along the 
line of discussion of this conference, it is possible to produce a variety 
of grains and of vegetables that will be adapted to that climate, or that 
latitude and that climate rather, and Alaska with its vast forest interests 
is worth a hundred times more than we paid for the whole territory. The 
gold mines and other mining interests are of very great value, and they 
should have an agricuiture suited to their climate, as will assist all these 
other industries, that they may have community of interests there, without 
which you cannot have real development and progress anywhere. You 
cannot hang people on one peg or stand them on one stick. They have 
cot to have foundations reaching around to every side, and this matter 
that Dr. Evans has presented is a matter of vast importance to that ter- 
ritory. 


92 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK 


Dr. Hansen—Last fall I had the privilege of visiting Lapland, which 
is the northern section of Norway and Sweden, on behalf of the De- 
partment of Agriculture. I was exceedingly interested in the successful 
cereal cultivation, principally the raising of barley, and it is being done 
as far north as the Arctic Circle successfully. I hope some of these 
varieties will be a success in similar sections of Alaska. They raise barley 
and oats very successfully at 69 degrees and some minutes in some places 
in Norway. I was interested’ also in tracing red clover to its northern 
limit in Lapland. As near as I can get at it, in a state of nature, it is 
indigenous north of the Arctic Circle, the same as corn; it seems to 
be an elementary species, and is being selected by the Government in 
Northern Norway. One clover which I found exceedingly well suited to 
Northern Dakota was a form picked out by a peasant many years ago in 
the mountains, a perfectly smooth leaf, a form of red clover. It has 
lighter colored blossoms and no white spots on the leaves. We trust a 
few of that sort will be of value, so far as there will be no dusty hay. 
The hairs, I understand, make dust in the case of common clover. Several 
forms have been picked up in Siberia, forms of red clover, or closely 
allied to it, that were perfectly smooth in the leaf and very vigorous in 
habit. There is no reason, I think, why we should not extend cereal 
cultivation on this continent much farther north than at the present time, 
if we take advantage of the working of nature in adapting plants through 
the ages. As I said the other day, I believe to acclimate plants as we 
ordinarily understand the word, it is not the work for man to undertake. 
It is a work of twenty thousand years, but we can aid it by searching the 
world to find species that are adapted, and take them and take advantage 
of the work of nature through the work of ages, and then by taking ad- 
vantage of hybridization of the forms, we may find it is possible to do a 
great deal. 

Dr. Britton—I would like to ask Dr. Evans if he has an idea that 
the Great Indian fruit Quinoa would be of any value in Alaska, in 
case it could be grown there? Of course Quinoa is the fruit of South 
American natives right down to the coast, and I understand it is the 
staple food of perhaps eight million people where the cereals are not 
grown. 

The President—High up in the Andes? 

Dr. Britton—Oh, yes. I would like to ask Dr. Evans if there would 
be any economic utility in attempting that plant? 

Dr. Evans—What is the name of the plant? 

Dr. Britton—Quinoa. 

Dr. Evans—I don’t know. It is a case of educating the people, and 
we are having a hard enough time to educate them to grow some of their 
own food supplies. When they are perfectly willing to trade in some 
places and pay twenty cents a pound for potatoes when they could grow 
them themselves, and when they are willing to pay fifteen cents a pound 
for turnips—and I have seén turnips grown which would weigh from ten 


EXPERIMENTS IN ALASKA. 93 


to twelve pounds, and a single turnip would mean quite a little—when 
they are willing to pay those prices, it is hard to get them to do anything. 


Now, in the interior of Alaska, there is probably—the Geological 
Survey has made an estimate and Professor Jordan has made an estimate 
—between fifteen and twenty thousand square miles up there that would 
be adapted for agriculture as is general in Northern Europe. But I was 
going to say that probably not one hundred acres all told are in cultiva- 
tion, save perhaps in the vicinity of the new town of Fairbanks on the 
Tanana River, where they have found some excellent mines, and there 
is a rapidly growing town. At that place, a number of people have gone 
there, they are making truck gardens very profitable. We have this 
year opened a station between Chena and Fairbanks, and Professor 
Jordan says, he found early in August ripe wheat and oats and barley 
that had been self-sown, growing right there where there had not been 
any cultivation of the soil, and he sees no reason why it should not be 
done. 

The President—Where did they come from, self-sown? 


Dr. Evans—From manure and feed, right on a trail. That is where 
the seed came from. That is how it got there. These were not selected 
varieties. There were many things taken up there to feed the animals, 
and the animals had sown them. There had been no care given them, 
but a portion of them had ripened. They found a number of instances. 
He left Tanana in August, so they had plenty of time to mature. The 
valley is not a high one. It is undulating and it has a plentiful rainfall. 
Last year we had but 1% inches rainfall during the entire growing 
season, and then Jack Frost came along and succeeded in putting to the 
bad about all our crops, but we went to work and cut them for hay, 
and sold this to the mail contractor at $200 a ton. That sounds like a 
very big price for hay, but we paid Indians $6 a day to help make that 
hay, and after we had sold this to the mail contractor, there was a very 
vigorous protest came through the Secretary of Agriculture from people 
who had a ranch along this same trail, and they protested in a vigorous 
way, as vigorously as they could, against the sale of hay by the Govern- 
ment to the mail contractor, and particularly, as they could not com- 
pete with the government selling hay at $200 a ton! (Laughter.) 


Secretary Barron—In regard to the cabbages, you say it is the New 
Jersey Wakefield type? 
Dr. Evans—Yes. 


Secretary Barron—Have you any information about the varieties of 
the Little Pixie type? I wonder, if they would do in that climate better 
than the larger headed varieties? 

Dr. Evans—I don’t know. 

Secretary Barron—I know in some parts of Europe, the little cabbage 
grows much better than the big drumhead type, but over here, around 
New Jersey and New York, I have found that the Little Pixie type al- 


94 HORTICULTURAL -SOCIETYOF NEW  SYORIE 


ways becomes woody. I found it absolutely impossible to cook it into a 
tender condition. 

The President—It is only a question of having a short season for 
development. 

Dr. Evans—In the interior, yes. On the coast, they have a climate 
not as vigorous as here. The fall temperature at Sitka is between that 
at Washington and Richmond. Many people have an idea it is all snow 
and ice up there. Last winter, the lowest temperature—the lowest since 
we have had our station located there—was four degrees below zero. 
That is, the lowest temperature, at Sitka, has been since 1898, between 
this and ten degrees or more above that, but the long summer season 
has hardly ever a maximum temperature in Sitka along the coast region, 
of over 80 or 82 degrees. In the interior, at Copper Centum, we 
had maximum temperatures of 96% degrees. We also had a minimum 
temperature of 70 degrees below zero, but there was a fairly good cover- 
ing of snow, and it did little damage. In the Yukon Valley, where there 
is more moisture than in the Copper River valley, the snow has been 
sufficient to protect the winter sown cereals every year.. The snow falls 
ordinarily in October, and lays there until the latter part of April, when 
it goes off with a rush, and then there is a succession of twenty-four 
hour days of sunshine with an occasional rain to keep things watered 
until the middle of September, when things begin to meet with frost, and 
by the 1st of November, it is frozen up again, and there has nearly always 
teen during the years we have been located at Rampart sufficient snow to 
protect the winter cereals. 

The President—Of course, there is one thing that affects vegeta- 
tion in the Arctic regions that we must always bear in mind, and that is, 
when you get twenty-four hours of sunshine in a day, you have got some- 
thing that is affecting things in a most potential way. You could not 
get the vegetation that grows in the Arctic region without it. 

Dr. Evans—I perhaps should have been more conservative in the 
matter of sunshine, but we do get twenty-two hours of sunshine and 
twenty-four hours of daylight, from the early part of June until late in 
July. 

The President—We sometimes, those of us who go up in Canada, 
find the effect of sunshine which seems to us remarkable. 

Dr. East—I would like to ask what the effect of such an amount of 
sunshine is on the plant growth, in relation to the amount of darkness? 

Dr. Evans—I don’t know, as far as our station is concerned. No 
investigation has been made along that line. There was one carried on 
some years ago, in connection with the station in Finland, but the result 
was rather inconclusive, but it is a subject well worth studying. We know 
very little about why it is that this longer time will have any effect, 
except that we suppose that if ten hours will produce a certain result, 
then twenty hours will do twice as much, but whether it does or not, 
we are not certain. 


EXPERIMENTS IN~ ALASKA. 95 


The President—Ds, Hansen, in your investigations, have you looked 
into it at all, the effect of a long day upon vegetation? 

Dr. Hansen—As near as we can get at it, that is what saves time. 
In the long interior, the midnight sun is only for a short time, so that the 
plants do get a certain amount of rest during most of the growing season. 

The President—\t involves the question of the necessity of rest 
for plants, whether there is anything in it—do plants require rest? 

Dr. Britton—We think the matter to be determined accurately, 
would have to be taken up in some such region as that spoken of by 
Dr. Evans. Of course, we could not determine that experimentally, ex- 
cept under the natural conditions. It would be impossible to attempt it 
anywhere else. So far as I know, there is no information on it. 

The President—Can you give us the statement in regard to the 
period of twenty-four hours in which plants make their greatest growth? 

Dr. Britton—l cannot tell you that. 

The President—We will now ask Mr. Hays to read his paper. 


The following paper was read by W. M. Hays: 


Plant Improvements Needed in Specific Cases. 
BY Wir M. -Elays, 


Assistant Secretary of Agriculture. 


We have in the United States probably $5,000,000 worth 
of animal and plant products whose value could be increased 
Io to 20% by breeding. The organization of public cooperative 
and private breeding establishments of sufficient magnitude to 
thus add $500,000,000 to $1,000,000,000 to our plant and animal 
production does not seem overdifficult. Effective methods have 
been devised and large results have been achieved which war- 
rant that the plant-breeding work being organized in the United 
States Department of Agriculture and that being developed in 
the State experiment stations and in branch experiment stations 
be greatly increased. Seed farms, nursery farms, special plant- 
breeding farms and private individuals, both professional and 
amateur, have reason to increase their equipment and their ener- 
gies along this line. Cooperation between the United States 
Department of Agriculture and the State experiment stations 
and the cooperation of these institutions with farmers and in- 
dividual plant breeders and growers of purebred seeds and plants 
is developing rapidly. The American Breeders’ Association 
with its forty-odd committees, meetings like this Conference on 
Plant Hardiness and Acclimatization, seed and plant breeders’ 
associations, including associations for breeding specific crops, 
as seed corn breeders’ associations, are doing very much to bring 
together in groups men to do team work in extending this vast 
enterprise. 

The detailed studies of our soils and mapping of our agri- 
cultural regions according to soil, climatic and crop conditions 
are dividing up the territory of the American States into in- 
numerable varietal districts. A thousand varieties of corn are 
needed for as many local conditions. There are scores, if not 


98 HORTICULTURAL ‘SOCIETY “OF, NEW YORId 


hundreds, of local conditions requiring varieties of wheat spe- 
cifically adapted to the respective conditions. Even in straw- 
berries, where a variety like the Wilson may be successfully 
grown in twenty or thirty States, the work of the plant breeder 
is proving that the profits come from varieties adapted to spe- 
cial regions. All along the line our cereal, cotton and other field 
crops, some of which yield hundreds of millions of dollars; our 
fruit and vegetable crops, also representing vast sums of wealth, 
and even some of our forest crops, are ready to be made over 
to suit each local soil, climate, system of agriculture and market. 

Until recently much of the plant breeding was done by 
amateurs. There was no organization to emphasize the greater 
importance of new values in crops representing immense wealth, 
and there was little systematic thought concerning the organiza- 
tion of our American plant breeding as an establishment of 
mighty import to our nation. The two first American common- 
wealths to begin the organization of State plant-breeding es- 
tablishments were Ontario and Minnesota. Each of these States 
can show for the expenditure of forty or fifty thousand dol- 
lars in breeding field crops, products directly traceable to the 
work of plant improvement of forty or fifty million dollars. In 
no other of America’s largest economic enterprises is there op- 
portunity to make public funds so productive as in the improve- 
ment of our economic plants. Along some of the lines of least 
resistance in which improvements can easiest be made in crops 
of largest value, a dollar can be made to earn a thousand dollars 
and even in rare cases a million. It seems a fair and conserva- 
tive estimate to state that our $3,000,000,000 worth of annual 
plant products can be changed by breeding alone into $3,300- 
000,000, at a cost of less than $3,000,000, one dollar earning on 
the average more than $100. Those who have had most ex- 
perience in this line believe that the present organization of this 
work could be enlarged in ten years so as to be on the basis of 
expenditure and results last mentioned. 

The breeding of corn throughout the upper Mississippi Val- 
ley, and for that matter throughout the entire United States, 
illustrates what is needed in the breeding of all our economic 
plants. Men in every State, in every group of agricultural 


PLANT IMPROVEMENTS NEEDED. 99 


counties, in many individual counties and even on particular soils 
within counties, are breeding corn peculiarly adapted to their 
local conditions. For the most part varieties are being perfected 
so as to yield more of grain per acre, with some attention being 
paid to the quality of the grain. In some instances special at- 
tention is paid to secure more protein or more fat to give a grain 
with a higher feeding value or to suit the needs of some particu- 
lar manufacture, as in the case of corn oil or wheat with stronger 
gluten. In other cases, the effort is to so breed varieties as to 
push the dent corn belt northward, to push the fodder corn belt 
northward, or to breed corn better suited to regions where 
droughts are severe. While in the middle West the varieties 
bearing one ear per stalk are believed to be best, in some sec- 
tions of the South, where corn is planted wide apart, the evi- 
dence seems to be that breeders should produce corn with two 
ears per stalk. Some sections devote themselves to the pro- 
duction of seed of varieties peculiarly useful in distant regions, 
as for purposes of thickly growing silage and dry fodder for 
dairy cows farther north than corn for grain is profitable. One 
county in Missouri‘is said to have 10,000 acres of corn which 
has been bred for large, dense cobs for the making of cob-pipes. 
Popcorn suited to different localities is bred to expand larger in 
the popper. 

In wheat breeding the production of varieties peculiarly 
suited to each local condition presents problems unique in them- 
selves. In Minnesota, for example, with spring wheats, the ef- 
fort is to produce sorts which will be so highly rust-resistant that 
this disease will not be able to reduce yields 10 to 60% annually. 
In the case of winter wheats for Minnesota the need is for varie- 
ties bred to greater hardiness that they may endure the winters 
often not well covered with snow and very cold, and thus carry 
northward the larger yielding ability of this class of wheats. 
Durum spring wheats which yield well need to be so bred as 
to have gluten of tougher quality and the grains to be made less 
flinty, so as to be more easily ground into high-class flour. 
There is need of hybrids of these three varieties of wheat, tak- — 
ing out of each parent kind and combining into new varieties the 
desirable qualities of the several parent varieties. Improved 


100 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 


classes of wheats are needed for the black prairie soils of south- 
ern Minnesota, for the sandy soils of northern Minnesota and 
for the very fine clay soils of northern Minnesota, also the very 
fine clay soils of the Red River Valley, that the yield for the 
State be raised from fourteen bushels to twenty bushels. In 
Kansas varieties are needed which are hardier in winter, varie- 
ties whose chaff more tightly holds the kernels so that the grain 
need not be harvested the day it is ripe; also varieties which 
will thrive under the drouthy conditions of the western part of 
the State. In Washington and surrounding States varieties are 
needed which combine hardiness or ability to live over winter 
with high yielding power and ability to stand erect and not 
shell out for days or even weeks after ripe until harvested; with 
higher content of superior gluten which will otherwise in- 
crease the value per acre of this crop on distinctive soil and 
climatic areas, as in the Willamette Valley, in the Yakima Val- 
ley, in the Sacramento Valley, and in numerous other localities 
distinctive in soil, climate and in the system of farming into 
which the wheat must adapt itself. ; 

Commercial apples need to be bred not* only for the great 
apple regions of New York, Michigan and Missouri, but for 
every region in the country where it is practicable to raise apples 
for family use. Where we have hundreds of successful varieties 
we could have thousands, that we might better adapt varieties 
to localities and also that we might throw away many that are 
not now adapted to the regions in which they are grown. 

The breeding of plants is a long-time proposition. The ele- 
ments of the work are men with a genius for creative breeding, 
the unit characters to be blended into new varieties or species, 
and means and organization for long-continued efforts. We 
need to develop a class of highly trained breeders who, through 
long and extensive experience, will become highly efficient in 
turning public and private dollars into double eagles, and even 
pennies into dollars. 

The work of men like Mendel, DeVries, Bateson, Daven- 
port, Castle, and Webber in discovering the laws of heredity is 
of immense benefit, and for generations men of this class will 
continue to add to our knowledge facts of large practical value 


PLANT IMPROVEMENTS NEEDED. IOI 


in the improvement of our plants and animals. Their work 
should be supported most liberally, that they may rapidly. learn 
the needed truths useful to those who create new economic and 
artistic values. Of no less value is the work of men like Vil: 
morin, Burbank, Neilson and Garton, who produce new values 
which give not only inspiration to breeders but which lead legis- 
lative bodies, firms and individuals to invest the necessary sums 
of money to reap the full possible profit represented by the hun- 
dreds of millions mentioned above. If the faith of plant breeders 
is truly placed—that every agricultural district would respond 
to varieties especially bred for its conditions,—we have only 
touched the fringe of the possibilities for creating wealth by 
breeding plants. 

All the students of theory and all the practical creative 
breeders, so far as I know, believe that in each species there is 
one plant among very many which has peculiar breeding power, 
peculiar projected efficiency, peculiar variety-forming values 
along needed lines, and that the bulk of the everyday work of 
breeding is in finding these “Shakespeares of the species.” 

The work of creating still greater Shakespeares of the 
species through hybridizing may prove to be the more important, 
as it is the more interesting; but the bulk of the expense of our 
needed Federal, State and private breeding establishments must 
be in the work of “mingling art and statistical methods” in 
ferreting out the occasional individuals with peculiar value, seg- 
regating their “blood,” and in giving them a chance to prove 
themselves adapted to increasing production in broader or lesser 
areas. 

The efforts of the American Breeders’ Association through 
several dozens of committees and sub-committees to secure team 
work in the making of plans for breeding each species of plants 
and animals is beginning to bear fruit. There is value in 
friendly rivalry, and men who, like Mr. Williams in his state- 
ment of methods for breeding corn, are securing the applause 
of their fellows, are appreciating the recognition for public serv- 
ice well done. The making and the execution of specific plans 
for breeding each species so that it will better serve in its present 
habitat, and will be adapted to habitats which it cannot now quite 


102 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 


succeed in, are as much questions of the hour as the discovery 
of additional limitations to Mendel’s law, or as are other general 
questions of the theory of heredity. 


The President—Any remarks to be made on Mr. Hays’ statement? 
Dr. Hansen—I would like to ask if you met with any objection by 
the nurserymen? 

Mr. Hays—I would like to say that I heard one of our leading 
nurserymen say that he did not know anything that might help the 
nurserymen more than this, because they only shipped a small number of 
plants, as many of them were often taken up by growers who never 
grew before, and our nurserymen stand right by us. We do not mean 
to antagonize them and the nurserymen seem to have no objection. Of 
course, they are all looking for orders for this plant, but we select 
from some nurserymen whom we know to be reliable, and whom we 
know by experience will put up a plant as we want him to. At first, we 
tried it by tender, but at last we got down to one man who does the 
work for us. There is no objection whatever on the part of the nursery- 
men to the work. In fact, it has been a help. 

Mr. Southwick—I would like to call the attention of the gentlemen 
present to the educational value of this work. That is very important, 
the educational value of this work, to the people of this province or any 
section. 

The President—The subject is one which has great economic value 
and has a bearing also upon the subject of hardiness and acclimatization. 
We would ask Mr. Hicks now to present his statement on ‘‘ Plants from 
East Asia and Western Europe on Long Island.’’ 


The following paper was read by Henry Hicks: 


Plants from East Asia and Western Europe on 
Long Island. 
By Henry Hicks, Westbury, L. J., N. V. 


Foreign plants will succeed best in the vicinity of New 
York City if from regions of equal or greater annual variation 
of temperature and a similar January mean temperature or iso- 
therm. They should also be from a region subject to moderate 
drought, but not from a desert region. 

The January average of New York City is about 30° F.; 
the July average 70° ; the annual range is therefore 40°. 

The countries where these two lines pass are northern 
Japan, Caspian Sea, Caucasus Mountains, southern Russia, Aus- 
tria and eastern Germany. These two lines cross here and in 
northern Japan and plants from there thrive best here. 

In Colorado and Korea the line of 30° January average is 
crossed by 50° equal annual range, and conifers from there 
and northeast China are not injured by our extremely 
severe winters even when our native conifers are injured, be- 
cause they are accustomed to a more severe or widely and sud- 
denly variable climate than our natives. The Colorado coni- 
fers are subjected to a more brilliant winter sun than ours, there- 
fore they show no damage from the winter sun which burns our 
pines, hemlocks and arbor vite. The Colorado conifers are ac- 
customed to a more severe, dry winter wind when the frozen 
ground does not supply moisture, therefore they are not killed 
back as occasionally happens with the hemlock, red cedar, white 
pine and arbor vite. But in a hot June the tips of the new 
growth of the Colorado evergreens is killed. This trouble I 
have not seen described. It does not affect the conifers of 
Korea and Manchuria and northern Japan, and they are the 
best foreign conifers. 

Evergreens from the Caucasus, from the Taurus Moun- 


104 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF -NEW YORE 


tains in Asia Minor and from Austria and the Balkan Penin- 
sula thrive here. That region has an annual range of 30 to 40° 
and a January average of 30° or a little below. 

Evergreens from the mountains of North Carolina thrive 
here. Linville, North Carolina, has 31° January mean, and 
about 40° annual range. 

Evergreens from Maine, the Adirondacks and Michigan 
thrive here, except a few slightly dislike our warmer periods in 
winter, alternating with cold, dry northwest winds. In other 
words, they do not like to be awakened in winter by bright 
sun and a temperature of 65°. They like steady cold. 

The above applies to regions whose conifers thrive here. 
Evergreens from the two west coasts do not permanently thrive 
here. 

The line of 20° annual range passes through Spain, France, 
England and Norway, and through California, Oregon, Wash- 
ington and the coast of British Columbia, the southern slope of 
the Himalayas and southwestern China. 

Isothermal lines and latitude are not a guide to the intro- 
duction of plants from the two west coasts. The isotherm of 50 
passes through here and through southern England, Ireland and 
the State of Washington. 

Prof. W. M. Davis, of Harvard, from whom this map is 
copied, says that the reason for the small range of temperature 
along our Pacific coast and the western coast of Europe, and 
the area of strong range along our eastern coast, and the eastern 
coast of Asia, is the combined action of ocean currents and the 
winds, particularly in the control of the distribution of tempera- 
ture by the winds. 

In temperate latitudes the prevailing course of the winds 
is almost from west to east. 

The above statements have been made mostly with conif- 
erous evergreens because they are awake all the year and record 
the whole climate of their native country and where introduced, 
except drought. They generally require only a fraction as much 
water as deciduous trees. 

Deciduous trees and shrubs go to sleep in winter by drop- 
ping most of their evaporating surface, and if their foliage is 


PEANTS “EROMs HAST “ASIA, - ETE. 105 


damaged in summer it is born anew the next spring. The ever- 
greens are more severely handicapped by their injuries. 


With few exceptions deciduous trees, shrubs and vines from 
western Europe are not happy here. They suffer more from 
fungus diseases than our natives, and the bark and trunk are 
mere liable to crack when the temperature goes below zero. 
The foliage often feels softer, less leathery, less able to stand 
drought, darker green and arranged more at the ends of the 
branches so that looking up into the trees is as into a hollow 
dome. 


Most of the fruits brought from Europe to the eastern 
coast of the United States is less healthy than the native trees. 
Fortunes have been spent trying to introduce fruits that failed. 
We hear of these European fruits thriving better on the Pacific 
coast. 


There should be a series of experiments along the east 
coast of the United States to introduce the economic and orna- 
mental plants of eastern Asia and other regions of similar cli- 
mate, and carry on extensive plant breeding with them and with 
the native plants and the more highly improved plants of Europe. 


The above conclusions have been reached from observations 
on plants mostly growing on Long Island, northern New Jersey, 
New York State, the vicinities of Boston, Philadelphia, Wash- 
ington and Norfolk, Virginia. Long Island has been probably 
the oldest and most extensive testing-ground for European and 
Asiatic plants. From the Prince Nursery or Linnean Botanic 
Garden were distributed many foreign trees in Colonial days. 
Later the Parsons Nursery introduced the Hall and the Hogg 
collection of Japanese plants. The Charles A. Dana collection 
is on Long Island. Nursery stock imported from Europe and 
Japan has been very extensively used. 


Dr. Asa Gray’s discovery of the close relation of the floras 
of eastern Asia and eastern North America led me about seven- 
teen years ago to begin noting the behavior of those plants here. 
At that time we were importing a large part of our young nurs- 
ery stock from France and Scotland. Later I imported most of 
the species offered by the German, French, English and Japan- 


106 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY *OF “NEW WY ORK 


ese nurseries, and collected seed of native species. The latter 
is the predominant policy at present. 

These conclusions have been corroborated by Prof. C. S. 
Sargent in “Notes on Cultivated Conifers,’ in Garden and 
Forest, October, 1897, and “Classification of Climates,’ by W. 
Koppen, in Bulletin American Geographical Society, August, 
1906. 

There are many exceptions to the above conclusions. Many 
Japanese plants fail to be hardy in severe winters, many suffer 
from summer drought and some have bark killed in winter. 
This I assume to be due to the more equable and humid or 
oceanic climate of Japan. Some Japanese plants are severely at- 
tacked by San José scale, as Japanese quince and Japanese plum. 
The San José scale is severe here only on Rosaceae from humid 
or equable climates. 

From western Europe several trees thrive here, as the 
beech and Norway maple. 


The President—Mr. Hicks’ paper seems to me to be of very great 
interest. It is now before the Conference for discussion. 

Dr. Hansen—I believe this conference can bring out some funda- 
mental truths and conditions. It is a conference on Acclimatization of 
Plants. If we can bring out evidence enough to show that acclimatization 
of plants is an impossibility in human hands, it is the most fundamental 
thing that has ever occurred in American horticulture. I want to come 
just as near making that a positive statement, that acclimatization is an 
impossibility for human hands, as I can; that is, by selection alone— 
that is, to adapt a plant to a greater degree of heat or cold by selection 
alone—that is an impossibility, and that is the platform that funda- 
mentally affects all our experimental work. In the same way, it might 
be true that acclimatizing plants from the far north to the far south or 
from a humid section to a dry section, or vice versa, is an impossibility. 
Here is something that goes to bear out that truth, that for several years 
past we must take what Nature gives us and not attempt to perform Le 
work of twenty thousand years in a generation. 

The President—We have had the fond theory that we could co- 
operate with Nature. 

Dr. Hansen—Yes, by hybridization, but not by acclimatization. 

The President—In relation to the statement by Mr. Hicks, that our 
native plants, trees, etc., are not only more vigorous in various ways, the 
contrary also seems to be true when he says that the foreigners are more 
subject to diseases than to enemies. Now, I have noticed this year for 
the first time, that my English oaks are badly infested with scale. Some 


PLANTS FROM EAST ASIA, ETC. 107 


fine specimens have been destroyed. I have never seen any scales on 
our native oaks. The royal oak was the oak that saved his Majesty when 
he took refuge in the royal oak, and it was destroyed this season by the 
scale. Of course, one swallow does not make a summer, but so far as 
it goes, it is in line with his remarks. I think the practical value of these 
observations that Mr. Hicks has presented to us is very great. 

Prof. Munson, of West Virginia—Relative to the remarks of Dr. 
Hansen with reference to the change of character of-a plant without 
hybridization, it is very generally attempted, among horticulturists, who 
believe, for instance, that a peach grown in Michigan will stand a much 
lower degree of temperature, than will a peach, the same variety, if it 
was grown in Alabama, though of course, the propagation of peaches in 
Alabama is only by florists; but a peach grown in Alabama would be 
killed by a climate that would have no injurious effect upon it whatever 
if it was grown in Michigan. It would seem true that there is a distinct 
modification of the character of the individual. 

Dr. Hansen—Commenting on that, I believe it is a fact well known 
to nurserymen that there is such a thing as trees being too soft for certain 
soils, and therefore a peach tree raised farther north, for instance, would 
be too hardy for Texas, hardier than one raised on the Gulf Coast, for 
instance, and this temperature effect did not save the peach orchards of 
Michigan last winter. There were hundred of thousands of peach trees 
killed last winter in Michigan. I do not wish to discourage, by any means. 
I just throw it down as a sort of challenge to be picked to pieces by all 
of you who so desire. I do not wish to discourage any effort at im- 
portation. In fact, I have had a little to do with that sort of thing myself, 
but the thing to be observed in this matter is that we must study ecology 
more than we have. I am pleased to see Mr. Hicks has done so much 
in that direction. We must study the climate in various parts of the 
world, as a guide to our importation work. An attempt to acclimate a 
plant that is much softer is a rather difficult task, whereas, if we pay 
some attention to the native habitats of plants in making our selection, we 
will save an immense amount of money. That is the only point I wish 
to make, but in addition to that I stand here to say that we can acclimate 
plants by hybridization, that is, carrying over this inherent hardiness, 
whatever it is, and helping it by heredity. 

The President—In following the statement ‘of Prof. Munson in 
regard to the peaches grown in Michigan of the same variety being 
hardier, even though cultivated from the bud, it calls to my mind that 
the hardiest peach stocks in America are on the elevated lands of Ten- 
nessee and nurserymen send to Tennessee to get the seed. It is a great 
business, the peaches grown at that high elevation, which means north- 
ern climate. Now, why are those peaches grown there and have been 
grown there for we do not know how long? The question whether they 
were not introduced from Mexico and got there in that way so that they 
are more thoroughly Americanized and acclimatized than any other 


108 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 


peaches in the Continent, is something we cannot decide. There are 
wild peach forests in Wisconsin and they could only have got there by 
the Indians receiving them from the Mexican settlers about four hundred 
years ago. Now, if these peaches have become as near indigenous as it 
is possible for a foreign thing to come to in Tennessee, and have got 
stamped on them the requirements of the American continent—if that 
is the case, as I believe it is—why, it is the hardiest peach stock in Amer- 
ica and in the world, outside of Manchuria. Doesn’t it conflict then, - 
with Dr. Hansen’s claim? Now, so far as I know, no other reason is 
advanced for the extreme hardiness and vigor, so that nurserymen avail 
themselves of it, of this peach stock of Tennessee, in this high ele- 
vation. There is no reason for it except the fact that that elevation gives 
it not longer than the historic history period—unless it is in the wild 
peach of Wisconsin—I would like to have it explained. 

Dr. Hansen—In answer to the question: I would say I have tried 
some of those hardy peach stocks and also the common peach pits. I 
have had the hardy peaches of Towa that they have been raising for 
years from the hardiest stocks, and after a hard winter, I never discovered 
any difference. One might be deader than the other—they were both 
dead! I have had the French crab from the side hills of France, and 
I have had the Vermont plant seedlings, and those from Vermont are 
supposed to be the hardiest on the American Continent, but the same 
observation could be applied to both; they were both dead after a hard 
winter. 

Mr. Macoun—Gentlemen, I regret very much I was too late to hear 
this paper, because it is a subject I am very much interested in, but it 
seems to me the question Dr. Hansen has brought up is a very complicated 
one. The question of mere temperature alone, I think is a small factor 
—not exactly a small factor, but it is only one of the factors regarding 
hardiness. For instance, I understand experiments have been carried on 
at places, among them, the Department of Agriculture, Washington, for 
testing the seeds at different temperatures. Some were submitted to 
very low temperatures and they survived the temperature. It seems to 
me that the question of humidity, ripeness of wood and various other 
causes also influence the hardiness of plants, and when we introduce plants 
from over the seas, we do not know exactly the way they lived there. 
We do not know whether they are woodland species or not. They may 
be a species that thrived in very different conditions. We found in our 
experience at Ottawa, with our own native hemlock, when we trans- 
planted it from woodlands where it thrived at home, that it is very difficult 
to get it to thrive in the open, and in the case of four or five other trees, 
I think they have shown a great deal more vigor than some other species 
which correspond with them. There is the northern species P. excelsa. 
We have no other tree which has a more rapid growth than the Norway 
spruce, and no other which is less subject to disease. Then there is 
the European which is much stronger than our own species, but I don’t 


PEANTS  FROM- EAST, ASIA, ETC. 109 


think it is much more subject to insects than our own. We also have the 
Scotch Pine which is a hardy tree. There is also the Norway maple which 
is an exceedingly rapid growing tree. Now, in regard to fruit, there 
is the question of protection, bending down and covering the soil—but 
the mere protection of other trees is a very important factor in influencing 
hardiness; and I know in Manitoba, where it is very difficult to grow 
apple trees, some of our most successful nurserymen grow the trees be- 
tween rows of celery. I suppose this protection which they might find 
in no other place, has enabled them to grow these trees. 

Dr. Britton—Mr. Chairman, as having perhaps a remote bearing on 
this subject, I would like to call your attention to the Century Plant in 
the Island of Jamaica, from which I have just returned. That is a species 
which is in Jamaica, very abundant, in all the arid southern portions of 
the Island. Now, that plant has a diametric range of five thousand feet 
in temperature. That is, it extends right from the shore on the dry side 
of the island right up to the tropical station on the mountain side towards 
the south, and that evidently is subject—you see the same species is 
there—to all the variations from the highest to the dryest kind of tropi- 
cal temperature up to the temperate zone, which is the temperature 
at Cinchona, because Cinchona is one of the most delightful places for 
residence in the world. It occurs right on those mountain sides, ap- 
parently not affected by temperature, but apparently influenced by hu- 
midity. This is an example of the species which goes according to the 
humidity, but does not seem to care very much about temperature. As 
bearing also on the subject, in a less degree, there is the same history 
in the case of Jamaica in the Pilocereus. The species which I found in 
other lands, is the same. I have found it in other places just the same 
as this. It grows on the south side to a height of two hundred feet, 
higher, in fact, than any other species of Pilocereus in Jamaica that I have 
observed. Instances might be multiplied, I am sure, showing the great 
latitudinous range on the south side of the island, apparently regardless 
of conditions of temperature. 

The President—It has been suggested that the most profitable way 
to spend the afternoon would be to look around the garden and see 
specimens growing here that would illustrate many of the things that are 
under discussion at our meeting. 

It was then moved by Mr. A. L. Willis, seconded by Prof. N. E. 
Hansen, that the thanks of the Conference be given to the American 
Institute, and to the New York Botanical Garden, for the courtesies 
accorded them. 

There being no other business before the Conference, adjournment 
was then taken. 


Papers Read by Title 


Cooperative Methods of Ascertaining Hardiness 
in Fruits. 


By, Eror. Hl; Lr Hure, 
Ontario Agricultural College, Guelph, Ontario. 

Hardiness is largely a matter of locality. In speaking of 
any particular fruit we may say it is hardy in a certain district, 
although it might be quite tender in another. For this reason, 
the determination of hardiness of any kind of fruit is more or | 
less of a local problem and cannot be ascertained at any one ex- 
periment station for all parts of the country. This question of 
hardiness and adaptability of the various kinds of fruits to the 
different sections of the Province was one of the problems which 
confronted the Ontario fruit-growers a number of years ago, and 
has been more or less definitely solved by cooperative methods 
during the past ten or twelve years. When we began this method 
of testing we already had two Government Experiment Stations, 
one at Guelph and one at Ottawa, where extensive tests were 
being carried on with the fruits that could be grown in these 
localities: but in addition to these, fourteen prominent fruit- 
growers were selected in as many different parts of the Province 
to carry on experimental work in the testing of fruits most 
largely grown in their districts. These Fruit Experiment Sta- 
tions were not purchased by the Government, but were left in 
che hands =f the private owners. who were furnished with large 
collections of varieties of the fruits most grown in their locality 
upon which they could make careful observations and report 
results. 

This cooperative experimental work is under the manage- 
ment of a Board of Control, composed of the President and Hor- 
ticulturist of the Ontario Agricultural College, the Horticul- 
turist of the Central Experimental Farm at Ottawa, and three 
representative fruit-growers appointed by the Provincial Fruit 
Growers’ Association. 

In the selection of the experimenters men were chosen who 


114 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK 


had the confidence of the growers of their district and who al- 
ready had under cultivation more or less extensive plantations — 
of the various kinds of fruits, and were thus prepared to make 
reports from the very first upon the varieties they already had 
in fruiting. 

Each experimenter makes a full report each year to the 
Secretary of the Board of Control, who classifies and prepares 
the reports for publication. 

As a result of all this testing during the past twelve years, 
Bulletin No. 147 was published last year, giving lists of the 
fruits recommended for planting in the various parts of the 
Province. This little bulletin of ten or twelve pages contains 
in a condensed form information which is of incalculable value 
to the fruit-growers and farmers of Ontario, because it is a re- 
liable guide to planters, and is well worth all the money that 
has been expended upon the Fruit Experiment Stations. 

The cost of this work has not exceeded $1,800 per year, 
and this has been expended principally for the purchase of trees 
and plants for testing; for the annual allowance, varying from 
$50 to $200, paid to the experimenters for their reports, and 
cost of publication of the same. 

As an outcome of this work, the Department. of Agriculture 
has just published a_ beautifully illustrated and descriptive 
volume on the “Fruits of Ontario.” The descriptive work has 
been done largely by Mr. L. Woolverton, Secretary of the Board 
of Control, and has been carefully revised by the members of 
the Board. It is expected that it will be a standard for ref- 
erence for Ontario fruit-growers for many years to come. 

For fuller information regarding this work, I need only 
refer to the Annual Reports of the Fruit Experiment Stations 
published by the Ontario Department of Agriculture, which are 
distributed free upon application. 

Anothet phase of cooperative experiments in fruit-grow- 
ing which has been productive of great good in Ontario, is that 
carried on by the Horticultural Department of the Ontario Agri- 
cultural College. This work is conducted through the agency 
of the Experimental Union, an organization managed by the 
officers, students, and ex-students of the College, but every resi- 


COOPERATIVE METHODS. 115 


dent of Ontario interested in horticulture is invited to join in 
the work and benefit by the results of the experiments. This co- 
operative testing has been in progress many years with farm 
crops. The work with fruit-growing began fourteen years ago 
with sixty experimenters, to whom were sent small collections 
of strawberries, raspberries, or currants for testing. The fol- 
lowing table gives a good idea of the scope and progress of 
the work, as it shows the nature and number of experiments 
undertaken since its inception in 1894: 


COOPERATIVE EXPERIMENTERS. 


NUMBER OF EXPERIMENTERS 


Nature of Experi- 
aun 

ment alo, 

| 


Strawberries. . . |r5| ; 244) 713|2,128 - 


93) 206, 601 


Black Raspberries!15 20 20 20 25) 25| 25] 35] 52} 43) 53) 46, 67) 185) 631 
25|.35| 32| 47) 42| 42, 32| 72| 417 


20| 25] 25| 25] 38| 48] 20] 30] 48 31| 85] 468 


Ne) 
Oo’ 
D 
20 
Raspberries . . . |15| 20] 20| 20) 25| 25] 25] 35| 48| 44| 46] 60 
20 
Blackberries. . . |—| —| 20 
itgants = % o <= |\05)20) 20 


Black Currants. . |—| —| —| —| —| —| — — 43] 47) 50| ~=—-53]:~=I10) 303 


Gooseberries . . . |—| 20) 20] 20| 25] 25| 25] 50) 47| 39| 40| 55| 71| 137] 574 


Grapes for South- 


ern Ontario . . |—) — — —) —S — —|/—|/ —| —| —| —|_ 82) 178 260 
Grapes for North- 

ern-Ontario . ./— — — — — —/— — — —|— — 69. 96 165 
Apples for South- 

ern Ontario... |—| — —| —| — —| —| — — —| —| — 144) 281] 425 
Apples for North- | 

ern Ontario . . /— —| — — —) —| —| —| — — — — 264 329| 503 


otaleee sae 60 100 120150225 225 225 309 370 364 433 5321,1502,39026,655 


From this it will be seen that a total of 6,655 lots of plants 
have been distributed for testing. These experimenters are so 
scattered that they are found in every township and district in 
the Province. 


116 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY “OF 2 NEW "OER 


We may briefly outline the method by which this distribu- 
tion is carried on. Early in the year a circular is distributed, 
and announcement is made in all of the leading papers of the 
Province that plants will be given free of charge for testing, 
on the understanding that each experimenter who receives the 
plants will follow the instructions furnished with them, will 
carefully look after the plants, and will report each year upon 
the yield and growth of the plants upon blank forms furnished 
annually for this purpose. 

The following is a list of the experiments, showing the class 
of fruits and varieties of each offered for planting. These varie- 
ties make a good general collection for home use and in most 
cases cover the season from early to late. They have been 
selected after vears of careful testing at the various Government 
Fruit Experiment Stations as the ones most likely to give good 
results throughout the Province. 

Experiment No. 1. Strawberries—Splendid, Fountain, Ruby, 
and Parsons—12 plants of each. 

Experiment No. 2. Raspberries—Cuthbert, Golden Queen, 
Marlboro’, and Columbian—6 plants of each. 

Experiment No. 3. Black Raspberries—Gregg, Kansas, 
Palmer, and Older—6 plants of each. 

Experiment No. 4. Blackberries—( Adapted only to *south- 
ern sections of Ontario) Agawam, Eldorado, Kittatinny, and 
Snyder—6 plants of each. 

Experiment No. 5. Currants—Fay, Red Cross, - Victoria, 
and White Grape—2 plants of each. 

Experiment No. 6. Black Currants—Champion, Lees, 
Naples, and Black Victoria—2 plants of each. 

Experiment No. 7. Gooseberries—Downing, Pearl, Red 
Jacket, and Whitesmith—2 plants of each. 

Experiment No. 8. Grapes—(For *Southern Ontario) Con- 
cord, Wilder, Niagara, Lindley, Brighton, and Vergennes—1 
vine of each. . 

Experiment No. 9. Grapes—(For *Northern Ontario) 


*This division of the Province into North and South may be ap- 
proximately made by a line running from Collingwood to Kingston. 


COOPERATIVE METHODS. 117 


Champion, Worden, Winchell, Delaware, Lindley, and Moyer 
—1I vine of each. 

Experiment No. 10. Apples—(¥For *Southern Ontario) 
Primate, Gravenstein, McIntosh, Blenheim, Rhode Island Green- 
ing, and Northern Spy—1 tree of each. 

Experiment No. 11. Apples—(For *Northern Ontario) 
Transparent, Duchess, Wealthy, McIntosh, Scott’s Winter, and 
Hyslop Crab—1 tree of each. 


The plants for this distribution are purchased from nursery- 
~men who make a specialty of growing good plants and putting 
them up in good condition for distribution by mail. We are 
obliged to make use of the mail, because in many cases the ex- 
perimenters live so far from express offices that it would not be 
practicable to send the plants in that way. Applications for 
plants are filed in the order in which they are received until the 
appropriation for the purchase of plants is exhausted. When 
sufficient applications have been received to make up the lists of 
those to whom plants will be sent, circulars are sent acknowl- 
edging receipt of application and informing the applicant that 
plants will be sent by mail in proper time for planting. Special 
directions are also furnished for conducting the experiment with 
each kind of fruit and blank forms are furnished upon which 
to report results at the end of the season. 

For a copy of these cultural directions for the various fruits 
and more general information regarding the work, we must 
refer our readers to the last Annual Report (1906) of the Ex- 
perimental Union. 

A record is kept in the office of the Horticulturist giving 
the name and address of each experimenter, the kind of plants 
sent him for testing, and a brief record each year of his report 
upon the same. Naturally, many experimenters who receive 
plants fail to report after two or three years, although there are 
many who have been engaged in this work almost from its be- 
ginning and have been sending in regular reports. In this way 
we have a list of careful experimenters all over the Province, 


*This division of the Province into North and South may be ap- 
proximately made by a line running from Collingwood to Kingston. 


118 HORTICULFURAL -SOCIETY ‘OF NEW: YORK 


whose results are of value, not only to themselves, but to those 
in their neighborhood. 

Upon receipt of the reports at the end of each season, they 
are summarized and a general report of the work is presented 
each year at the Annual Meeting of the Experimental Union held 
at the College usually during the first week in December. 

This work is of great educational value to those engaged in 
it, and the greatest value naturally accrues to the individual ex- 
perimenters who receive plants and carefully conduct the experi- 
ments. It is valuable also because it affords a means of dis- 
tributing the leading varieties throughout the Province, and 
many are thus given a start in fruit-growing who had never 
before given it any attention. The educational value, too, of the 
cultural directions furnished with plants is helpful, enabling 
growers to adopt the best methods in their fruit-growing. This 
work, although conducted on a scale calculated more to help the 
grower in his supply of fruit for home use, is also having a 
marked effect on the commercial fruit-growing of the Province. 

Similar work was begun this year with vegetables, and 
seeds of a few of the leading varieties of beets, carrots, let- 
tuce, and tomatoes were distributed to about fifteen hundred ex- 
perimenters. Reports upon this work are now coming in, and 
one of the most striking features in connection with it has been 
the eagerness with which it has been taken up by the various 
schools of the Province, where school gardens have been insti- 
tuted, and probably in no other place could it have a greater 
educational value. 


Pactors Attecting Elardiness of the Peach. 
By U. P. HeEprRick, Geneva, NV. VY. 


The peach affords a striking example of a plant undergoing 
acclimatization. In the wild state, this species is endowed with 
a constitution fitted to endure the heat of climates almost sub- 
tropical. Under domestication it is gradually becoming inured 
to climates far to the north of its habitat and so cold that at first 
it could not have lived in them. It may be that this change 
is somewhat due to the acclimation in which the plant is natur- 
ally or spontaneously becoming habituated to cold; but the peach 
can now grow in colder climates than formerly, chiefly because 
of the efforts of man to secure this change in the species. What 
are the means by which man can aid in acclimatizing a spe- 
cies or a variety to a climate at first injurious to it? 


I have made two efforts to find some explanation of the 
varying behavior of peach trees during freezes and frosts, work- 
ing at the problem from the standpoint of the horticulturist, 
and the information obtained in these investigations shows some 
of the means by which man is helping to acclimatize the peach 
and by which possibly other species might be acclimatized. In 
the spring of 1905 I addressed letters to about one hundred of 
the best peach growers in Michigan, asking for their experience 
as to the hardiness of the peach in tree and bud. In the spring 
of 1907 about the same number of letters were addressed to 
peach growers in New York. This paper is a brief review of 
the answers obtained. In making these investigations I have 
visited the orchards of many of my correspondents, and have 
noted the condition of the trees under consideration and have 
a personal knowledge of many of the conditions discussed. 

The factors considered in the investigation fall under two 
heads: 


I. Cultural treatment, which increases the ability of the in- 
dividual trees to withstand cold. 


120 HORTICULTURAL ‘SOCIETY “OF. NEW WORES 


II. Variations in the species favorable to greater hardiness 
to cold. 

In presenting and discussing the information obtained, I 
shall advance few or no theories but shall simply set forth the 
facts that have been reported to me. 


1: 


The factors of environment and of cultural treatment noted 
as affecting acclimatization are as follows: 


’ INFLUENCE OF SOIL ON HARDINESS. 


It is usually held that trees are hardiest on sandy, gravelly 
or stony soils. In the peach orchards of Michigan the growers 
consulted held this to be the case almost without exception. But 
in New York the kind of soil seems to make but little difference, 
providing it is warm and dry. If these two factors be favorable 
peaches seem to thrive in any of the soils of New York. The 
difference in opinion between the peach growers of Michigan 
and New York arises from the fact that the great belt in which 
peaches are grown in the first-named State has a sandy soil, 
and growers there have scarcely tried the peach on clays, loams 
or shales upon which some of the best orchards in New York 
are located. 

But this point is made clear: the peach must have a warm, 
dry soil to secure the greatest possible hardiness inherent in the 
species. Only in such a soil can trees make a strong, firm, 
well-matured growth that seems to be conducive to hardiness. 

Many growers in both States speak of the desirability of a 
gravelly subsoil to secure a hardy tree. Such a subsoil seems 
to be conducive to the warmth and dryness of roots and it is 
probable that so far as hardiness is concerned it matters little 
whether this subsoil be overlaid with sand, gravel, loam, clay or 
combinations of these. 


DOES THE AMOUNT OF MOISTURE IN THE SOIL IN WINTER AFFECT 
THE HARDINESS OF THE PEACH ? 

The evidence as regards this point is clear. Either extreme 

of moisture—excessive wetness or excessive dryness—gives 


HARDINESS OF THE PEACH. 121 


favorable conditions for winter-killing. A wet soil is conducive 
to sappiness in the tree and also freezes deeply. Severe cold, 
especially alternating with warm weather or accompanied with 
dry winds, causes evaporation of water from trees, and if the 
soil be so dry as not to furnish moisture to replace the evaporated 
water, harmful results ensue. Several experiences were given 
in Michigan in which trees were injured far more from winter 
freezes in a dry than in a wet soil. The statement was made 
by several growers that twigs and buds which are more or less 
shriveled in winter from lack of water or lack of maturity are 
almost invariably winter-killed. 


WHAT EFFECT DO FERTILIZERS HAVE ON TREE GROWTH AND HENCE 
ON SUSCEPTIBILITY TO COLD? 


It has always been held in theory that fertilizers with any 
considerable amount of nitrogen, as barnyard manure, cause trees 
to make a heavy, rank, soft growth susceptible to freezing. The 
majority of the peach growers consulted in this investigation 
still hold that such is the case, but a very considerable number 
of them, among them some of the best growers in the two States, 
hold that trees are more likely to suffer from cold if underfed 
than if overfed. Their experiences indicate that vigorous, vege- 
table growth in early summer can be made of great service in 
counteracting cold and that half-starved trees, or those which 
have been allowed to bear too heavily, are apt to suffer most 
from freezing. Fertilizers properly used do not, in the experi- 
ence of these growers, necessarily induce a rank, soft growth. 
By using properly balanced fertilizers, by stopping cultivation 
at the right time, and by judicious pruning, it was maintained 
that the growth could be kept firm, the top of the tree compact, 
and the branches well set with buds, all conditions favorable 
to hardiness. Practically all of the growers report that late fall 
growths are susceptible to winter injury of both wood and bud. 


DO COVER CROPS PROTECT TREES FROM COLD? 
There were no conflicting opinions on this point. Growers 
who had planted cover crops, and nearly all had, were agreed as 
to the value of this method of protecting trees from winter freez- 


122 HORTICULTURAL “SOCIETY OF NEW YORE 


ing. Many individual cases were cited of orchards having cover 
crops, surviving this cold winter or that when nearby orchards 
without the covering crop holding a muffler of leaves and snow 
were killed. The peach growers in the two regions consider the 
cover crop the most effective treatment of their orchards to 
avoid winter-killing, holding that they protect the roots from 
cold, cause the trees to ripen their wood quickly and thoroughly, 
and assist in regulating the supply of moisture. 


ARE SEEDLING TREES HARDIER THAN BUDDED VARIETIES? 

Seedling peach trees are popularly supposed to be hardier 
than budded varieties. Most of the correspondents in this in- 
vestigation state that such is the case but none give reasons for 
the supposed greater hardiness of the seedlings. The state- 
ments made are in no way convincing and the greater hardiness 
of the seedlings can be proved only by carefully conducted ex- 
periments. Two hypotheses should be tested in determining 
whether there is a difference in hardiness between budded and 
seedling trees: 1. Budding may decrease hardiness. 2. Seeds 
for the stocks of the budded trees come from the South and 
these may produce more tender trees than would northern-grown 
seeds from which seedlings come. 


IS THERE ANY DIFFERENCE IN HARDINESS’ BETWEEN LOW-HEADED 
AND HIGH-HEADED TREES? 

All growers in both States prefer low-headed trees, claim- 
ing that both trunks and branches are more often injured in 
high-headed trees. Buds, however, often survive on the higher 
branches and not on the lower ones. The reasons vouchsafed 
for the difference are: the effects of winds in drying out the 
wood of high-headed trees; low-headed trees are usually most 
vigorous; and lastly, better protection to the trunk from the 
sun and hence from sunscald, one of the effects of freezing and 
thawing. Attention is called by several growers to the fact that 
buds on high-headed trees usually suffer less from spring frosts. 


ARE WINDBREAKS A PROTECTION TO TREES OR TO BUDS? 


There was much difference of opinion. From the experi- 
ences given it seems that the value of a windbreak depends 


HARDINESS, OF ‘THE...PEACH. 123 


largely upon the topography of the land. A windbreak so situ- 
ated as to form still air can only be detrimental so far as cold is 
concerned. So planted as to deflect or cause air currents they 
become of value in keeping off frosts. More often than not, 
however, it was claimed, they seriously check atmospheric drain- 
age and the damage by frost is increased. Another disadvan- 
tage is, should the windbreak be to the north, the buds on the 
trees thus sheltered are forced and are therefore more liable to 
injury by late frosts. The testimony was for most part un- 
favorable to windbreaks. 


WHAT DEGREE OF COLD WILL KILL PEACH TREES? 


There was a most surprising uniformity in the answers to 
this question. Nearly all of the correspondents set 20° below 
zero as the temperature that will kill the peach tree under nor- 
mal conditions, though some had known them to withstand tem- 
peratures of from 20 to 30°, depending upon the condition. in 
which the trees went into winter. The following are the con- 
ditions unfavorable to withstanding cold and about in order of 
the frequency in which they are mentioned: lack of maturity of 
wood; lack of protection of roots by snow or cover crops; poor 
soil drainage; overbearing in the preceding crop; lack of vitality 
from ravages of insects or fungi; and the susceptibility of the 
variety to cold. 


WHAT DEGREE OF COLD WILL KILL PEACH BUDS? 


From the answers to this question we are forced to conclude 
that much more depends upon the condition of the buds than on 
the temperature, assuming of course a temperature below zero 
and not greater than 25°, which seems to be the limit that peach 
buds can stand even under most favorable conditions. The 
chief factors influencing tenderness of buds are: maturity of 
buds; variety; and the time at which the buds of a variety fin- 
ish their resting period and become ready to grow. Some of 
the factors influencing temperature are: lay of the land; prox- 
imity to water; stresses of changeable weather; altitude; lati- 
tude; and currents of air. 


124 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK 


ARE TREES FROM NORTHERN NURSERIES HARDIER THAN THOSE 
FROM SOUTHERN ONES? 

Many opinions were expressed, but few men had grown 
trees from different latitudes under such conditions as to answer 
the question fairly. The answers were in no way decisive and 
the question is still an open one to be settled only by direct ex- 
perimentation with trees of the same varieties from North and 
South grown under identical conditions. 


WE 
The following variations in the species favorable to hardi- 
ness to cold were noted: 


DOES THE CHARACTER OF INDIVIDUAL TREES HAVE ANYTHING TO 
DO WITH HARDINESS? 


Answers to this question were very indefinite and often con- 
flicting. It was held by some, and with a fair show of experi- 
ence to confirm the contention, that trees naturally high-headed 
with few branches, long, spindling trunks, branches and twigs, 
have soft wood and are therefore more susceptible to freezing. 
On the other hand, that individuals having naturally short 
bodies, a goodly number of branches starting low, with short- 
jointed wood, bright and clear when cut, and thickly set with 
buds, were the least easily injured by cold. One tree of a 
variety may be supposed to be slightly more hardy to cold than 
another through inherent variation, but whether such hardiness 
can be detected through the character of the growth would 
have to be determined by carefully conducted experiments and 
can hardly be proved by such observations as my correspondents 
are able to make. 


ARE THE SMALL-GROWING VARIETIES WITH COMPACT HEADS 
HARDIER THAN THE FREE-GROWING SORTS WITH LARGE HEADS? 


Practically all growers say that the compact growing sorts 
are the hardiest. As would be expected the small-headed varie- 
ties are those with the least succulent wood. The following 
varieties are named as being the most compact growers and 
hence hardier than the average: Hill’s Chili, Crosby, Gold Drop, 
Barnard, Kalamazoo, Triumph, Wager and Fitz Gerald. 


HARDINESS (OE THE” PEACE. 125 


IS THE WOOD OF SOME VARIETIES MORE SUCCULENT THAN THAT 
OF OTHERS MAKING SUCH SORTS SUSCEPTIBLE TO-COLD? 
Every experienced orchardist or nurseryman knows that 

there is a great variation in the texture of peach wood. Some 
varieties have a much more succulent growth than others grown 
under the same conditions. Succulency of growth is in some 
cases a well-marked varietal character and one that can be 
avoided in selecting sorts to plant where hardiness is a requisite. 
Summarizing the answers from New York and Michigan, the 
following are the sorts most often named as having the softest 
and sappiest wood growth: Early Crawford and Late Crawford 
are named by practically all correspondents as being most suc- 
culent in growth, following which, named in order of degree of 
succulency come: Chair’s Choice, St. John, Niagara and Sur- 
prise. 


ARE YOUNG OR OLD TREES HARDIEST? 


Beyond all question young trees suffer most in severe win- 
ter freezes. Practically all of my correspondents in both New 
York and Michigan agree to this, and as a proof many of the 
Michigan growers give their experience in the several severe 
freezes that have occurred in that State during the past few years, 
in which young trees universally suffered most. It is probable 
that young trees are injured most because they make a much 
greater and much ranker growth than the older ones and hence 
more sap remains in them during the winter. The formation 
of buds in the older trees is helpful, too, in maturing the wood. 
There are, however, many exceptions to the statement that young 
trees are less hardy to cold than old ones. Old trees can be 
forced to produce large quantities of new wood susceptible to 
winter-killing, while on the other hand the superabundant growth 
of young trees can be kept down by orchard treatment. It is 
fair to assume, too, that old trees possessing very low vitality 
are less hardy than vigorous young trees. Thus it was often 
noted that old trees which had suffered from the ravages of 
borers, or fungus parasites, as curl-leaf or shot-hole fungus, 
were easily killed by cold. 

_ While young trees are more susceptible to freezing than old 


126 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK 


ones, yet they are much more likely to recover, if recovery is pos: 
sible, and their return to the normal condition is more rapid. 
This is probably true because of the greater vigor of the younger 
plants and because of the possibility of an entirely new cover- 
ing of bark for small trees often impossible with larger ones. 


NAME THE FIVE VARIETIES OF PEACHES MOST HARDY IN WOOD. 


There was, as would be expected, great difference of opin- 
ion as to the sorts most hardy. In New York the following five 
sorts, in order named, were considered most hardy: Crosby, 
Hill’s Chili, Stevens’ Rareripe, Gold Drop and Elberta. In 
Michigan practically every grower considered Hill’s Chili most 
hardy in wood, followed closely by Crosby, then Gold Drop, 
Kalamazoo and Barnard. It was interesting to note that El- 
berta, Smock and Salway, considered fairly hardy in New York, 
are somewhat tender in Michigan. The three upon which 
growers agree in both States as being hardest are, Hill’s Chili, 
Crosby and Gold Drop. Wager, Jaques Rareripe, Carman, 
Belle of Georgia, Hale’s Early, Champion, and Greenboro, none 
of them in the lists of five hardiest, are hardier than the average. 


NAME THE FIVE VARIETIES MOST TENDER IN WOOD. 


Here, too, opinion differed, but not so much as in naming 
the lists of hardy sorts. In New York the list runs: Early 
Crawford, Late Crawford, Chair’s Choice, St. John, Niagara. 
In Michigan the first four are as in New York, Early and Late 
Crawford, Chair’s Choice and St. John, followed by Smock, 
which, strange to say, is considered a fairly hardy sort in New 
York. Michigan growers consider Salway tender in wood, 
while in New York there was an even division as to whether 
it was hardy or tender. Elberta came within a vote of tying 
Smock for the list of tender varieties in Michigan. 


NAME FIVE VARIETIES OF PEACHES MOST HARDY IN BUD. 


The New York growers named more than a score of varie- 
ties as being hardy in bud and were agreed only upon two sorts 
as being preeminently hardy, namely: Crosby and Hill’s Chili, 
with Triumph, Gold Drop, Steven’s Rareripe and Kalamazoo 
having an equal number of votes for hardiness. The Michigan 


EARDINESS OF THE, PEACH. 127 


growers gave their opinion most decidedly for the five follow- 
ing sorts, scarcely any others being named: Hill’s Chili, Gold 
Drop, Crosby, Kalamazoo and Barnard, with a few scattering 
votes for Triumph, Early Rivers, Wager and Salway. 


NAME THE FIVE VARIETIES OF PEACHES MOST TENDER IN BUD. 


Growers in the two regions agree as to the sorts most ten- 
der in bud. Not only are the same varieties given but in exactly 
the same order, namely: Early Crawford, Late Crawford, Chair’s 
Choice, Reeve’s Favorite and Elberta. Among other sorts 
named as being tender in bud in one or the other or both States 
are Old Mixon, St. John, Smock, Niagara, Surprise, Globe and 
Mountain Rose. 

In summarizing the results of the investigation it appears 
that the peach is certainly influenced as to hardiness by the cul- 
tural treatment given. The presumption is, upon philosophical 
grounds, if we accept neo-Lamarckism,—and most horticultur- 
ists do,—that the external influences of orchard management 
have a permanent effect upon hardiness of the peach and that the 
horticulturist is thus slowly but surely acclimatizing this species 
to greater degrees of cold than it could once stand. It appears, 
too, that there are favorable variations in the peach as to hardi- 
ness of wood and of bud, from which the horticulturist can 
select and breed varieties capable of withstanding the vicissi- 
tudes of climates which in its wild state this plant could not have 
borne. We have, in cultural treatment and selection, means at 
the command of the horticulturist to acclimatize plants, and I 
have tried to set forth in their relative importance the chief 
factors as these means are now being used in the acclimatiza- 
tion of the peach. 


The substance of the following paper was given by George V. Nash, 
during the course of an inspection, by members of the Conference, of 
the collections of the New York Botanical Garden, at the conclusion of 
the Conference: 


Observations on Hardiness of Plants Cultivated at 
the New York Botanical Garden. 


By GeEorcE V. NAsH, 
New Vork Botanical Garden. 


During a number of years past there have been grown in 
the collections of the New York Botanical Garden a large num- 
ber of species and varieties of shrubs and conifers, and it is ob- 
servations made upon these that it is desired to place on record 
here. The unusually severe winter of 1903-1904 will long be 
remembered by plant lovers in this region, and it has been 
thought best to disregard in great measure the effects produced 
by that extraordinary test, considering the various species from 
the standpoint of their adaptability to ordinary conditions. A 
detailed account of the effects of this winter upon the shrubs 
at the Garden was given in the Journal of the New York Botan- 
ical Garden for July, 1904. 

The collection of shrubs which forms the basis of most of 
the conclusions offered below is located on a flat plain to the 
northeast of the Museum Building. Here have been brought 
together over fourteen hundred plants, representing about six 
hundred species and varieties. The soil is rather light and 1s 
underlaid with gravel, so that drainage conditions are excellent. 
On opposite sides of this tract are depressions of considerable 
extent, markedly lower than the surface of the plain, thus insur- 
ing air-drainage, so that masses of cold air do not collect here. 
The region is, however, subject to the sweep of the cold winter 
winds, excepting in the vicinity of a boundary border and bridge- 
approach on the northwesterly side. It is necessary to describe 
these conditions that the remarks offered below may be avail- 
able for the use of others. 


130 HORTICULTURAL " SOGIETY “OF - NEW “YOR 


It will not be possible to refer to all the plants brought 
together in this collection. For a detailed account of the be- 
havior of a large number of these during the winter of 1903-1904 
the reader is referred to the Journal above referred to. 

As this collection is for study purposes, it is arranged in 
botanical families, following the sequence of Engler and Prantl. 
For this reason, the shrubs will be considered in family groups. 

The genus Berberis, the barberries, furnishes a number of 
species which are perfectly hardy. Among these are B. vul- 
garis and its purple-leaved form; B. amurensis, from Manchuria 
and north China; B. aristata, from the Himalayan region; B. 
buxifolia and its variety nana, from the southern Andes; B. 
Neuberti, of hybrid origin; and the ever and deservedly popular 
B. Thunbergii, perhaps the best barberry ever introduced into 
cultivation. The beautiful little barberry, B. concinna, from 
the Himalayan region, kills back somewhat at the tips. In a 
more sheltered situation it would almost surely prove hardy. 
It is a dainty little species and colors beautifully in the fall. 

In the hydrangea family there is Hydrangea quercifolia, 
from Georgia and Florida, which kills back partly at times. 
Duetzia crenata and its derivatives are unstable, sometimes kill- 
ing back to the ground, while D. gracilis and its derivatives are 
much more hardy. All of the genus Philadelphus, including all 
of the commoner forms offered in the trade, have proved per- 
fectly hardy. 

In the gooseberry family nearly everything is satisfactory. 
Ribes sanguineum, from the west coast, however, is apt to suc- 
cumb to exceptional cold, and always is a little unstable. One 
member of this family of comparatively recent introduction is 
Ribes curvatum, from the southern Alleghenies. It has proved 
entirely hardy during our coldest winters. It is most desirable 
from a decorative point of view. Its branches are long, slender 
and spreading, giving the plant a very graceful appearance, 
much resembling in habit Stephanandra flexuosa. During the 
early summer it is covered with a multitude of dainty white 
flowers. 

In the witch-hazel family Corylopsis spicata, from Japan, 
and Fothergilla Carolina and F. major, both from our Southern 


OBSERVATIONS ON HARDINESS. 131 


States, endure our climate well. Hamamelis Virginica, being a 
native, is of course hardy, but the Japanese representative, H. 
arborea, is not fitted to our conditions. In the rose family most 
of the spirzeas are satisfactory, a notable exception being Spirzea 
canescens, from the Himalayan region, which kills back badly, 
a regrettable fact, for its graceful habit would make it a de- 
sirable ornamental shrub. 

In the apple family, Pomacez, there are many desirable 
things. Nearly all the thorn apples, excepting those from the 
extreme south, are available out of doors. In the genus Cotone- 
aster, however, there is a wide difference in the hardiness of 
various species. Of those from the Himalayan region there 
have been grown here: C. Nummularia, C. bacillaris, C. micro- 
phylla, C. buxifolia, C. rotundifolia, and C. thymifolia. The 
first two mentioned have proved hardy, while the remainder 
are very unstable, even when protected by straw. Perhaps the 
explanation of this is in the fact that the two first are deciduous, 
while the others are evergreen, thus presenting a much greater 
transpiring surface which must act to their undoing in the 
changeable climate of our winters. 

Coming from Schipka Pass, high up in the Balkan Moun- 
tains, Prunus Laurocerasus Schipkzensis is tolerable of this cli- 
mate, but I fear the alternations of freezing and thawing would 
be its undoing in exposed situations. Of the three species of 
Cercis grown, the only one which is not satisfactory is the 
European species, C. Siliquastrum, the other two, C. chinensis 
and C. canadensis being entirely hardy. 

There are so many delightful things in the Papilionaceze, or 
pea family, that it is regrettable so few of them are satisfactory 
in our climate. Caragana Chamlagu, from northern China, and 
C. arborescens, from Siberia and Manchuria, are desirable sorts. 
Colutea arborescens, from southern Europe, is also hardy. The 
European Cytisus capitatus can also be relied upon. Lespedeza 
bicolor, from Japan, although a showy and desirable shrub, is 
not quite satisfactory, often killing back badly. While the furze, 
Ulex europzus, and the broom, Cytisus scoparius, are not at all 
desirable from the standpoint of hardiness, both killing back 
badly, even in mild winters. 


132 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. OF “NEW “YORE 


Of course the Rutacez, the orange family, present few spe- 
cies which are hardy in our climate. Notable examples of hardy 
forms are Ptelea trifoliata and Xanthoxylum americanum. The 
trifoliate orange, Citrus trifoliata, is just on the borderland, and 
in this vicinity needs a sheltering hedge for pretection to make 
it at all permanent. 

The boxes, Buxus, do not stand well in exposed places. 
While some of the forms of the common box, Buxus semper- 
virens, are better than others, they all do much better when in a 
protected situation. ‘ 

To the Anacardiaceze belong the sumacs, the genus Rhus. 
Many of these are perfectly satisfactory, including, of course, 
our native species, R. hirta, R. glabra, and R. copallina. The 
Chinese R. Osbeckii is especially desirable for foliage effects, 
owing to its entire hardiness. 

The holly family, Ilicaceze, has some species which are hardy. 
The Japanese Ilex crenata has proved a most desirable plant 
with us, even in exposed situations, its dark rich green leaves 
remaining all winter. Ilex opaca, the American holly, does bet- 
ter when protected, not taking kindly to a wind-swept area. The 
English holly is, of course, out of the question here. 

The Celastracee present a varied lot as to hardiness. Eu- 
onymus alatus, from China and Japan, is very desirable, both 
from its beauty and from its ability to stand successfully the 
rigors of our climate. FE. europzus and the American E. atro- 
purpureus are both available. FE. japonicus, from southern 
Japan, as might be expected, is not hardy in exposed situations, 
requiring considerable protection, while E. radicans, from the 
middle and northern portions of the same country, can be relied 
upon. 

Stuartia pentagyna, from the southern mountains, really 
needs the protection of a hedge to be a success, and S. Pseudo- 
camellia, from Japan, is no more hardy. 

The Oleacezee furnish many things which are hardy, the 
privets as a rule being among this class. The California privet, 
Ligustrum ovalifolium, was for years considered hardy, but the 
winter of 1903-1904 proved its Waterloo, plants during that 
period being killed entirely to the ground in exposed situations, 


. 


OBSERVATIONS ON HARDINESS. 133 


while it suffered severely even in more sheltered places. L. 
Quihoui, a shrub with widely spreading branches and_ thick 
green leaves, is hardy under normal conditions. 

The species of the genus Buddleia, belonging to the Logani- 
acez, are always more or less uncertain, excepting in protected 
situations. They come up readily from the roots, however, so 
if they are occasionally killed back they are worth growing, for 
some of them are very handsome, notable among these being 
B. variabilis. 

Most of the Verbenacez, the verbena family, are quite un- 
certain as to hardiness, but as many of them readily sprout 
from the roots when killed back, they are of use horticulturally. 
Vitex Agnus-castus, from the Mediterranean region, Callicarpa 
Japonica and C. purpurea, the latter from China, Clerodendron 
trichotomum and C. serotinum, and Caryopteris Mastacanthus, 
belong here. 

The honeysuckle family, Caprifoliaceze, is almost synony- 
mous with hardiness, for there are many species in the genera 
Viburnum, Lonicera, Weigela, Diervilla, Symphoricarpos and 
Sambucus, which even the severest winters do not harm. Abelia 
chinensis, another member of this family, is not quite hardy, 
unless in well-protected situations. It is a beautiful little shrub 
and is well worth giving a protected place. 

The collection of conifers is located on a series of ridges 
and valleys, those requiring some protection being placed in posi- 
tions which will afford such conditions. The plants are placed 
singly, instead of in groups, a condition which perhaps must be 
borne in mind in considering the following remarks upon their 
hardiness here. . 

The genus Picea is located on a slope which faces mainly to 
the northeast, with no protecting fringe of trees on the exposed 
side, from which direction come the prevailing cold winds of 
winter, so that the plants are here subjected to as severe a test 
from this source as could be imposed in this latitude. The area 
is underlaid with rock, so that the drainage is excellent, with 
the exception of that portion at the base of the slope to the north- 
east, where water is apt to accumulate and stand for some time 
in winter and after heavy showers in summer. In this lower 


134 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK 


portion those plants are located which prefer moisture. In this 
area have been grown for the past three or four years the fol- 
lowing: Picea Ajanensis, P. Engelmannii, P. excelsa and many 
of its horticultural forms, P. Mariana, P. Maximowiczii, P. 
Omorika, P. orientalis, P. pungens and its horticultural varie- 
ties glauca and pendula, P. polita, P. Sitchensis, and P. Smithi- 
ana. From our own country come P. Engelmannii, P. Mari- 
ana, P. Sitchensis, and P. pungens. Of these the black spruce, 
P. Mariana, is the only eastern representative which has been 
grown in the pinetum. It is not entirely at home, although 
removed but a few miles from a region where it is wild, the 
unstable temperature of winter here, with the alternate thawing 
and freezing, apparently not suiting it. The other two referred 
to are from the west, and are more satisfactory. This is espe- 
cially true of P. pungens and its varieties. This tree is found 
at elevations from 6,500 to 10,000 feet in the Rockies in Colorado, 
eastern Utah, and as far north as Wyoming. It is one of the 
most desirable American conifers for this latitude, making a fine 
appearance at all times, not browning in the least during the 
winters, and in the early summer the glaucous foliage of the 
young shoots, which is much intensified in the variety glauca, 
gives a beautiful grey-blue tinge to the whole tree. Picea Engel- 
mannii, reaching its perfection much further north, where con- 
ditions are quite different from those prevailing here, is hardy, 
but does not present that vigorous appearance presented by P. 
pungens. It grows at an altitude of about 5,000 feet in its 
northern limit, Alberta and British Columbia, to about 11,500 
feet in its southern limit, northern New Mexico and Arizona. 
In the region where P. pungens is at home, therefore, it grows 
at an altitude of 1,500 to 2,000 feet higher than that species. 
This could easily account for the difference in adaptability to 
this climate. Picea Sitchensis of the northwest coast of North 
America attains its best development near the sea. That it is 
not a success in this latitude is not a cause for wonder, the drier 
conditions here proving a severe check to it. Picea excelsa, 
widely distributed in Europe, excepting the extreme southern 
portions, does very well. This has been so long in cultivation 
that little need be said about it. In Norway, in latitude 63°, 


OBSERVATIONS ON HARDINESS. 135 


it grows at an elevation of 2,500 to 2,900 feet, while in the 
Tyrolese and Swiss Alps it reaches an altitude of 6,500 feet. 
Some of the dwarf forms of this are not as hardy as the type. 

Picea orientalis, from the Caucasian region, while hardy, 
has proved a slow grower. I use the word hardy somewhat ad- 
visedly, as of the eight or nine plants set out in 1903, all but 
three or four died during the succeeding winter. All the plants 
which survived were derived from one source, perhaps originally 
from seed from trees growing in a climate more nearly ap- 
proaching that here. Another species of Europe, with an ex- 
tremely limited range, is Picea Omorika, confined to the moun- 
tains of southwest Servia and the spurs leading therefrom. It 
grows at an elevation of from 2,000 to 4,000 feet. It is odd in 
having its nearest botanical relatives in P. Sitchensis, of north- 
western North America, and P. Ajanensis, of Japan. Five 
plants of it have been in the pinetum since the spring of 1903. 
They have proved perfectly hardy in an exposed situation, 
having passed through two unusually severe winters during that 
period. They are trim in habit, a clean green, and keep their 
branches right down to the ground. 

From Japan come two of the species in cultivation. These 
are P. Ajanensis and P. polita, the former also extending to the 
mainland in the Amur region. Picea Ajanensis is found in 
Japan mainly on the island of Yezo, and on the island of Sag- 
halin and the Kurile Islands to the northward, extending south- 
ward to about 35° in the island of Hondo. It is said to be par- 
ticularly at home in the cold stvampy plains of the western side 
of the island of Yezo, and this perhaps accounts for its lack of 
interest in our climate. With us it has been a slow grower, 
its location here perhaps being too dry. Picea Maximowiczii, 
which is said by some to be a form of P. obovata, has proved 
hardy. Its origin is somewhat obscure, but it is said to have 
come from Japan. Its nearest relative, however, is apparently 
P. obovata, a Siberian species. PP. polita, now exceedingly rare 
in a wild state in Japan, but extensively cultivated there, has 
proved adapted to this climate. Its range, as indicated by the 
few remaining trees in a wild state, appears to have been in the 
mountains from the southern part of Japan to as far north as 


136 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 


about 38°. Picea Smithiana, from the temperate Himalayas, has 
not succeeded well with us up to the present. It grows at an 
elevation of 6,000 to 11,000 feet, chiefly on the western and 
northern slopes. It is a curious fact that it frequently occurs 
with Cedrus Deodara and Pinus excelsa, the first of which has 
proved a very doubtful proposition in this region, while the 
latter is hardy. 

In the nurseries of the New York Botanical Garden, which 
are located on ground sloping to the southeast, other species 
have been grown. But even in this sheltered position Picea 
Breweriana is a failure. Plants which came into the collections 
in 1901 have remained almost at a standstill, and are but little 
larger than when they first arrived six years ago. P. brevi- 
folia, P. Canadensis and P. obovata have proved satisfactory, in 
this nursery. They were moved into the pinetum the past spring, 
and it will require at least one winter to indicate their fitness for 
this region. 

The genus Abies has essentially the same conditions to meet 
in the pinetum as has Picea. There have been growing there 
for the past few years the following species: Abies balsamea, A. 
Cephalonica, A. Cilicica, A. concolor, A. firma, A. Fraseri, A. 
homolepis, A. lasiocarpa, A. nobilis, A. Nordmanniana, A. Nu- 
midica, A. Picea, A. Sibirica, and A. Veitchii. Abies Veitchii, 
from an elevation of 7,000 to 8,000 feet, and also known from 
the Manchurian mainland, and Abies homolepis, from central 
Japan, at an elevation of 4,000 to 5,000 feet, appear perfectly 
adapted to this climate. Even tlie past winter, when some coni- 
fers, which had hitherto been looked upon as suitable, turned 
badly, these two kept green. Abies firma, from further south in 
Japan, does not show that vigor here that those mentioned 
above have done. 

Abies Sibirica, extending its range as far north as 66°, 
has a most extensive range. It is found from the northeast part 
of Russia and eastward through the entire length of Siberia to 
Kamschatka and the Amur region. This is perhaps a more ex- 
tended range than is enjoyed by any other species of this genus, 
but the whole area of its range is known as one of extreme and 
continued cold during the winter, with sudden transitions from 


OBSERVATIONS ON HARDINESS. 137 


winter to summer and vice versa. Coming from this region 
of continuous cold, it is perhaps the alternate thawing and freez- 
ing which is destructive to this species. It certainly cannot be 
the cold here, for in its native home it is subject to far more 
severe conditions of this kind. It has been tried several times 
in the pinetum, with poor results. 

Abies Nordmanniana has proved quite satisfactory. It is a 
native of the central portions of Transcaucasia, where it forms 
large forests in the valleys at elevations ranging from 3,500 to 
6,000 feet. It extends as far west as Trebizond, southeast of 
the Black Sea, in practically the same latitude as is New York 
City. In passing I would remark that Picea orientalis, which 
is said to be frequently associated with Abies Nordmanniana in 
Transcaucasia, is quite variable as to hardiness. Plants derived 
from some sources have proved perfectly hardy, while others 
will not stand our winters. These plants were secured from 
nurseries, and unfortunately it is impossible to obtain data as 
to where the seeds from which they were raised were originally 
secured. 

Of the firs from western North America three have been 
under cultivation in the pinetum for several years. These are 
Abies concolor, A. nobilis, and A. lasiocarpa. The latter is an 
alpine plant, and like all such plants does not find a congenial 
home here in New York, the long periods of drought during the 
summer and the alternate freezing and thawing during the win- 
ter militating against them. It is not satisfactory, although able 
to live through the winters. Abies concolor, much resembling 
it in color, is much more satisfactory and is one of the best of 
American conifers for this vicinity. Its ability to withstand 
heat and dryness, makes it especially valuable. Previous to the 
past spring, I do not recall its having shown any signs of brown- 
ing, but some of the specimens did brown rather badly the past 
winter, while others kept their beautiful gray-green without a 
blemish. 

Abies nobilis, which attains a height of 150 to 250 feet in 
its native home, the Coast and Cascade ranges of Washington 
and Oregon, is a very slow grower here, perhaps being drawfed 
by the drier climate of this region. It is perfectly hardy, how- 


138 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF (NEW YORI 


ever, even in exposed situations, not browning nor killing back 
in any way during the most trying winters. 

The two firs of the eastern parts of North America have 
both been under cultivation at the Garden for several years. 
Both of these, Abies balsamea and A. Fraseri, the latter re- 
stricted to the southern mountains, are not desirable as orna- 
mental trees. With us they are slow growers and of doubtful 
stability, the alternate freezing and thawing, perhaps, being the 
cause of this. 

Abies Cephalonica, from elevations of 2,500 to 5,000 feet in 
Greece, stands the winters well. A. Cilicica, from altitudes of 
4,000 to 6,500 feet in Asia Minor, is also hardy. This is an- 
other example of the strange difference in hardiness in this lat1- 
tude of two plants which are often associated together in a wild 
state. Abies Cilicica and Cedrus Libani are said to be constantly 
found growing together, and yet the latter has proved entirely 
unfit to stand our winters, while the Abies has been grown in 
an exposed situation with success for the past four years. Abies 
Numidica, an associate of Cedrus Atlantica in the Atlas Moun- 
tains, has been represented by a single specimen in the pinetum 
for the past four years. It is still in good condition, but it does 
not grow very fast. Abies Picea, or A. pectinata, as it is more 
frequently called, is the common silver fir of central and southern 
Europe. It is said to attain its greatest development in the 
humid mountain tracts of central Europe, a reason, perhaps, for 
its unsatisfactory behavior here. It comes through the winters 
alive, but it is apt to brown badly, and does not grow rapidly. 

Pseudotsuga mucronata, which has, perhaps, as wide and 
extensive a range as any American conifer, is one of the best 
for this latitude. Its wide range indicates its ability to adapt 
itself to a variety of conditions, and it makes one of the best 
and handsomest trees in this neighborhood, not even the most 
severe winters harming it in the least. Its dark green foliage 
is a delight in the winter time, and in the spring the fresh green 
of the young shoots in contrast with the dark green of the older 
branches, makes it most attractive. 

The pines, often residents of dry or cold regions, lend 
themselves more readily to cultivation in this region than do 


OBSERVATIONS ON HARDINESS. 130 


most other conifers. Among the white pines, Pinus excelsa, of 
the Himalayan region, growing at an elevation of between 6,000 
to 12,500 feet, is perhaps the best. Its leaves are longer and 
more graceful than are those of our own white pine, Pinus 
Strobus, and it is less subject to disease. Pinus Koraiensis, the 
Corean white pine, and said also to grow in Japan and China, 
is a rather slow grower, but perfectly hardy. Pinus parviflora, 
ascending the mountains to about 5,000 feet in central and south- 
ern Japan, thrives well here, and is desirable where a slow-grow- 
ing tree is wanted. Pinus Cembra, of central and northern Eu- 
rope, and Pinus Peuce, of Macedonia and Roumelia, are both 
hardy but slow growers. 


Among the red pines, Pinus Thunbergii, of Japan, and 
also said to occur in north China and Corea, rivals Pinus Aus- 
triaca in hardiness. It much resembles it in general shape. An- 
other desirable Japanese pine is Pinus densiflora, of central 
Hondo, where it grows among deciduous trees at an elevation 
of 3,000 to 4,000 feet. Pinus Laricio, P. Austriaca, and P. Pal- 
lasiana, of the mountains of southern Europe, the latter two 
often considered but as varieties of the first, stand well here. 
Pinus Banksiana, P. montana Mughus, P. pungens, P. resinosa, 
P. rigida, and P. sylvestris all thrive. Pinus ponderosa is not 
really at home, at least the plants we have, some six or seven, 
are not vigorous. Pinus Taeda is barely hardy in sheltered 
places, the young growths often killing back. 


Cedrus Deodara, growing in the Himalayan region at eleva- 
tions of 3,500 to 12,000 feet, barely survives, although Pinus 
excelsa, with which it is said to be associated in Cashmere, is 
perfectly hardy. We have plants in the pinetum which came to 
us in 1900 and which are still small, showing a tendency to kill 
to the snow line in severe winters. Cedrus Atlantica, from the 
Atlas Mountains, where it ranges between elevations of 4,000 
to 6,000 feet, is much better adapted to this climate. Here we 
have an interesting case of two species of the same genus, in 
practically the same latitude, about 32° north, one in the north- 
western part of Africa, the other in the northeastern part of 
India, the African species being much more hardy in this cli- 


140 HORTICULTURAL +SOCIELY “OP VNEW? YO hk 


mate than the Indian species, although it grows at a lower gen- 
eral altitude. 

In the genus Larix, as might be expected, Larix leptolepis, 
from the mountains of northern Japan, is most satisfactory. 
The severest winters we have had have not touched it. The com- 
mon European larch, Larix decidua, and the American one, 
Larix laricina, are, of course, hardy. Pseudolarix Kempferi, of 
China, has proved suited to the climate in this neighborhood. 
As both Larix and Pseudolarix are deciduous, they are better 
adapted to stand the alternate thawing and freezing they en- 
counter here, for the transpiration surface is reduced to a mini- 
mum. 

It is unfortunate that Cryptomeria Japonica is not hardy 
here. We have tried it several times, and only once have we 
found a single individual that would live at all, the others being 
killed every winter. This plant has now been in the pinetum for 
five or six years, is in a very sheltered place, and has managed 
to survive; it does not present the neat symmetrical appearance 
it does in the conservatories. It has borne cones and even the 
hard winter did not harm it more than usual. 

Sciadopitys verticillata, from the mountains of Japan, with- 
stands the winters well, rarely if ever browning in any way. 
Thujopsis dolabrata, as is the case with nearly all plants from 
southern Japan, is not hardy here. Chameecyparis pisifera, and 
its numerous varieties, also from southern Japan, is a little ten- 
der sometimes. Even here there is a great difference in in- 
dividuals, some withstanding the winters better than others, 
perhaps being derived originally from seed from more north- 
ern localities. Chamzecyparis obtusa, and most of its varieties, 
are about as hardy. 

None of the species of Cupressus are hardy. The members 
of the genus Chameecyparis from our northwestern country, 
C. Nootkatensis and C. Lawsoniana, can only be grown in shel- 
tered situations. Coming from a region where the annual pre- 
cipitation is greater than it is here, our long dry spells seem to 
militate against them. 

Among the cedars, Juniperus chinensis, J. nana, J. Sabina, 
J. prostrata, and of course the native J. Virginiana, are per- 


OBSERVATIONS ON HARDINESS. 141 


fectly hardy. While J. rigida, one of the most graceful of all, 
at least in a young state, from southern Japan, is only capable 
of a struggling existence, and winter-kills badly. 

Thuya occidentalis is hardy, excepting in wind-swept situa- 
tions, where it often kills badly and browns. Thuya gigantea, 
from the northwestern coast of America, where humid condi- 
tions prevail, will not stand here at all, and Thuya orientalis, 
of China, is precarious excepting in sheltered localities. 

Taxodium distichum and T. imbricarium both _ thrive, 
whether grown in wet or dry soil. 

Tsuga canadensis, of which a fine grove is to be found along 
the banks of the Bronx River in the New York Botanical Gar- 
den, is of course hardy. T. carolina, of the southern Alleghe- 
nies, is equally hardy.” T. Mertensiana has been tried twice and 
both times it failed, the plants when set out being in an ap- 
parently healthy condition, the first winter being fateful to them. 

Ginkgo biloba thrives vigorously, the coldest winters not kill- 
ing even the smallest branches. This cannot be said of the genus 
Taxus, however. The common European yew, Taxus baccata, 
needs a protected situation to enable it to pull through a severe 
winter. The Japanese yew, Taxus cuspidata, however, is per- 
fectly hardy, and during the severe winter of 1903-1904, when 
the European yew was killed, in many cases to the snow line, T. 
cuspidata, growing immediately alongside of it, was not hurt in 
the least, but kept green and intact the whole winter. 

Cephalotaxus is represented in the collections by two spe- 
cies, C. drupacea and C. Fortunei, the former from Japan, the 
latter from China. C. drupacea grows in the mountains, at ele- 
vations of 1,000 to 3,000 feet, from southern Hondo to central 
Yezo, often forming a part of the undergrowth in woods. C. 
Fortunei is from the northern part of China. Both these spe- 
cies can only be grown in this neighborhood in protected situa- 
tions, and even then present rather a scragely appearance. 

In this connection, as associating the data with horticultural 
matters, I desire to place on record the following, compiled from 
the records kept at the New York Botanical Garden for a num- 
ber of years. The precipitation is given for what may be called 
the eight growing months of the year, from March to October, 


142 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW "YORK 


inclusive. This may throw some light upon the problems of 
hardiness of certain species, when more is known as to their 
individual environment. 


IQOI 1902-1903 1904. +1905 1906 1907 


Marcher acc cee 6.89 5.63 5-90 3.82 4.47 4.15 ei 
Aprile eRe eee ee 8.96 S578: 3.49 5.00 2.88 6.50 4.93 
May tiaiss waeeemeeta 8.08 1.85 34 4.11 1.05 4.61 4.05 
Jdue.. ais cere at eee 1.04 5.65 8.28, 26 4.01 17a 3.85 
itilivges ohn soe eee 11.76 4.12 5.34 3.59 4.13 4.12 1.66 
AUISUSE cee ee Eee 8.56 5.75 5.94 6.52 6.04 3.78 2.59 
September! 3. «= 124. 2.23 5.83 3.6 4.06 6.09 25e 7.93 
Octobetrctysciics .cise 3.21 Gi3i 8.98 Pgh] 2.87 5.81 


50.73 39.87 41.03 32.47 31.54 33.21 


It will be noted from,the above that from Igo1-1906 a 
period of unusual dryness has visited this region either in the 
latter part of May or during June. In 1907, however, this 
drought appeared later, coming in July. It would seem that it 
is this dry period which militates so strongly against growing 
plants here from a humid region, such as many parts of the 
Pacific coast, and if we can but tide our plants over this period 
each year by carefully watering them, we may eventually suc- 
ceed in establishing many a plant which otherwise would suc- 
cumb to the dry conditions of its first year of residence, and 
eventually perhaps establish a vigor which may perpetuate it. 
This is particularly true of conifers, for it is just about this 
time that such plants are transplanted in the vicinity of New 
York. One can readily imagine the effect which would be pro- 
duced upon a conifer which was transferred from a nursery to 
a new situation just previous to the commencement of this 
drought. Perhaps many of our failures with conifers is due to 
this cause. A conifer handicapped with such conditions for 
several weeks after transplanting has but a poor chance to re- 
cuperate and lay up reserve force to carry it through a severe 
winter. I can recall one excessive visitation of this drought in 
1903, when the precipitation for fifty-two days, from April 16th 
to June 6th, was but 0.37 of an inch. This was followed by 
the extraordinarily severe winter of 1903-1904, and the re- 
sulting havoc in shrubs and conifers will be long remembered by 


OBSERVATIONS ON HARDINESS. 143 


many a lover of hard-wooded plants. The results upon shrubs 
at the Garden have been already referred to. 

The alternate thawing and freezing of this vicinity must 
also play an important part in the hardiness of plants here. 
Alpine plants, or those from regions of perpetual cold during 
the winter, do not therefore adapt themselves readily, nor do 
they take kindly to the succeeding fierceness of our summer sun, 
after a winter of subjection to thawing and freezing. 

There is hardly sufficient data as yet on which to base a 
statement as to what plants are hardy in the vicinity of New 
York. Not until many investigators have recorded the results 
of numerous experiments in various localities, and not until we 
know more about the individual environment of a given species, 
can we with any certainty explain the apparent contradictions 
which seem to exist in the matter of plant hardiness. In so 
far as the shrubs and conifers are concerned, it may be said 
that, as a general rule, species from the Alleghenies and from 
the regions somewhat to the north of New York are hardy here, 
the belt of hardiness extending across the northern border of the 
United States to the Rockies, and extending southward down 
them at elevations of medium height; while plants from the Pa- 
cific coast, even as far north as Washington and Oregon, lead 
a very precarious existence in this latitude. In Asia, hardy spe- 
cies come from northern and middle Japan, northern China, 
Manchuria and Siberia, with a few from the Himalayan region. 
In Europe, of course many of the plants from the northern and 
middle portions adapt themselves to conditions here, and from 
the high mountainous regions of the southern portions come 
some of our best conifers, while but few plants from the region 
of the Mediterranean survive long. 


Observations in the Region at the Head of Lake 
Michigan. 
By JENS JENSEN, Chicago, Illinois. 


Generally speaking the topography of the district under dis- 
cussion in the following notes is level. Geologically the region 
at the head of Lake Michigan consists of the following forma- 
tions: 

First—Alluvial Deposit. 

Second.—Glacial Drift. 

Third.—Morain. 

The Alluvial Formation consists of a series of sand ridges 
that form sand dunes toward the northern part with interven- 
ing spaces, still inundated or here and there raised up above the 
Lake level by decaying vegetation. All of the dry lands are 
covered with forest growth. 

The Glacial Drift, known to geologists as Lake Chicago, 
but commonly termed “Prairie,” consists of a heavy blue clay, 
and was entirely treeless before the arrival of the white man in 
this section. Judging by its name it is almost level, and has a 
poor natural drainage. 

The Morain borders on Lake Michigan north of Charo, 
here known as “Lake Border Morain,’ and also borders the 
“Prairie,’ or “Glacial Drift,’ described before. This forma- 
tion consists of a yellow, pebbly clay, and was originally cov- 
ered with forest growth, part of which still exists where the axe 
has left it alone. 

The elevation over Lake Michigan of these three different 
formations varies from a few feet to 180 feet, the Morain being 
the highest, with the exception of a few sand dunes that per- 
haps reach still a greater height, but which will not be con- 
sidered here. 

From the foregoing description of the formation of the 
lands at the head of Lake Michigan it at once becomes evident 
that there exists a difference in the vegetation covering these 


146 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF” NEW YOR 


areas. Nevertheless, leaving everything but the arborescent flora 
out of consideration, the difference is very slight, from the stand- 
point of the great variation in soil, which will be seen later. 

For convenience sake the vegetation will be divided into 
three groups: 

First——Vegetation indigenous to the above described area. 

Second.—Vegetation indigenous to the area, but introduced 
from one formation to another. 

Third—Vegetation introduced to the region. 

The greater variety is found on the alluvial soil, and some 
species are found here of more than common interest. Espe- 
cially is this true of the deciduous group, there being very little 
difference in the Conifers, all of the latter having been practi- 
cally exterminated by the soft-coal smoke of the city of Chicago 
where manufacturing has encroached upon adjacent territory. 
Originally the same vegetation as now found in the southern bor- 
der of the city extended along the present water-front of Chi- 
cago as far as the northern part of the old city limits. 

Of those species indigenous to the Alluvial Formation that 
will be discussed here are: 

Liriodendron Tulipifera. 
Nyssa multiflora. 
Nyssa sylvatica, 


Sassafras officinale. 
Fraxinus quadrangulata. 


Sassafras is found for about three miles beyond the north- 
ern limit of the Alluvial Deposit on the “Lake Border Morain.” 
Fagus ferruginea is a native of both the eastern and west-- 
ern borders of Lake Michigan, but only two groves are found 
on the “Lake Border Morain” in the State of Illinois, and also 
sparsely found in the northern part of the Alluvial Formation on 
the Michigan side within the limits of the area here discussed. 
Farther north on both sides of the lake large groves of well- 
developed trees exist. 
Of the Morain vegetation of interest here are: 
Acer saccharinum, 
Acer rubrum, 
Prunus serotina, 


REGION AT HEAD OF LAKE MICHIGAN. 147 


all of which are indigenous on the Alluvial Formation, but less 
vigorous and of smaller growth there. 

On the Glacial Drift (Prairie) as mentioned before, the 
present vegetation has been introduced. Perhaps a lonely cot- 
tonwood might have made its home in suitable situations on 
these plains, as we still find them to-day seeding themselves 
along ditches and roadways; still it is problematical whether the 
young sapling would have been able to withstand the annual fires 
that with great fury passed over these flat lands. 

Of course, groves of trees and shrubbery vegetation origi- 
nally existed along the bluffs of the Chicago River, but these 
have long ago disappeared with the exception of those along the 
north fork of the Chicago River, most of which passes through 
the Morain Formation. 

Referring to the second group: those species introduced to 
the Morain from the Alluvial Deposit will first receive attention. 
To my knowledge the tulip tree (Liriodendron Tulipifera) has 
been planted as far north as Waukegan, which is about thirty- 
five miles from Chicago. Sassafras and Nyssa multiflora have 
also been introduced, but no species of any size worth mention- 
ing exists outside of its natural distribution. 

Some healthy species of the tulip tree are found within a 
short distance of Lake Michigan, and especially noteworthy are 
the two remaining trees in the cemetery in the city of Waukegan, 
planted by the late Robert Douglas about forty years ago. The 
sister specimen of these trees once decorated the beautiful 
grounds of Mr. Douglas, but was winter-killed in the winter of 
1898 and 1899. One large specimen of sassafras, more than 
twelve inches in diameter, is found directly at the foot of an old 
lake beach where the Alluvial Formation and the Morain join 
north of the city of Chicago. As this tree stands in a private 
garden it is evident that it was planted perhaps between thirty 
and forty years ago; but native specimens are still found in this 
district, yet nowhere over ten to fifteen feet high, and this size 
very sparsely. The tree referred to is protected toward the 
north and west by the bluff and a group of conifers. 

Nyssa multiflora is not found in well-developed specimens 
outside of the Alluvial Deposit; a few specimens have been re- 


148 HORTICULTURAL . SOCIETY OF NEW YORE 


ported from the northern section of the Alluvial Deposit in 
Illinois. Whether those growing in the northern part of the 
city are native, or have been introduced, I do not know. 

Of the vegetation introduced to the Prairie indigenous to 
the region, I desire to mention: 

Fraxinus quadrangulata. 
Tulip Tree. 

Acer saccharinum. 

Acer rubrum. 

Prunus serotina. 

We will now come to the third group—lIntroduced Vege- 
tation. 

Referring to the Morain,— 

Magnolia hypoleuca, 

Gleditsia triacanthos, 

Ulmus campestris, 

Acer platanoides, 
have been introduced with more or less success. The magnolia 
can be found in specimens almost twelve inches in diameter in 
old gardens as far as Waukegan on the “Lake Border Morain.” 
Gleditsia triacanthos is also found in large specimens, and 
the Norway Maple grows very rapidly, and attains an enormous 
size on this formation. Ulmus campestris is dying out after 
about thirty years of growth, but disseminating itself through 
seeds before it succumbs to natural conditions deadly to its 
existence. 

On the Plain or Glacial Drift the same varieties have been 
introduced, and those specimens still remaining show the hard 
struggle they have to make for existence. Magnolia hypoleuca 
grows very slow, and as no specimens exist over fifteen years 
old it is impossible to state at this time how long they will be 
able to live on this formation. Acer saccharinum succeeds very 
poorly, and Acer rubrum after a few years of trial. succumbs. 
Acer platanoides (Norway Maple) struggles along and has so 
far succeeded in holding its own under favorable conditions, but 
does not attain a height over 25 or 30 feet. 

Prunus serotina is not much better off than Acer rubrum. 
Gleditsia triacanthos grows into large specimens, and seems 


REGION AT HEAD OF LAKE MICHIGAN. 149 


to succeed as well on this formation as any other tree if we ex- 
cept the cottonwood, yet in the cold winter of 1898 and 1899 
referred to before a number of beautiful specimens of Gleditsia 
triacanthos were winter-killed on these lowlands. Fraxinus 
quadrangulata, after a period of thirty-five years, is not more 
than from nine to ten inches in diameter, and about 18 to 20 
feet high, but seemingly healthy, only dwarfed. Nyssa multi- 
flora and Fagus ferruginea die out after a few years of struggle. 
As most of this formation is within the influences of the smoke 
of the city of Chicago, no reference will be made to evergreens, 
as all of them succumb after a longer or shorter period. 

In discussing Introduced Vegetation I also desire to call 
attention to a specimen of yellow wood (Cladrastis tinctoria) 
that stands on the top of the Morainsabout sixteen miles west of 
Chicago. This tree is more than twelve inches in diameter, and 
the only one found of any consequence in the entire region. In- 
troduced to the Glacial Drift it lingers along for a few years and 
then succumbs. That no reference has been made to Introduced 
Vegetation on the Alluvial Formation is largely due to the fact 
that these formations have either been covered with manufactur- 
ing, or with the homes of the laboring man where inhabited, and 
consequently no large gardens are found in this district that 
naturally would contain a variety of Introduced Vegetation. 

Most of the species introduced to the Glacial Deposit are 
found in the parks of Chicago. I may also here mention the 
attempt made of introducing Rhododendrons and Azaleas to our 
parks and gardens, but always with failure, even when the 
greatest care and study as to soil and natural growth have been 
considered. 


CONCLUSIONS. 


Generally speaking, as referred to before, all the species 
under discussion are found both on sandy and clay soil, con- 
sequently the soil conditions need not be considered as to the 
life of the tree. If we examine the vegetation mentioned on the 
Alluvial Formation more closely we will find that, following the 
shores of Lake Michigan from the north on the eastern border 
toward the head of the lake, the specimens become smaller in 


150 HORTICULTURAL, SOCIETY OF — NEW YORE 


growth, and less vigorous. Almost identically like the red cedar, 
which in the Middle and Southern States is a large and vigorous 
tree, gradually becomes smaller and smaller toward the north 
until it disappears as a low scrubby specimen. 

Those trees referred to appear also more sparsely toward 
the head of the lake. Reference is here made to the Sassafras, 
the Tulip Tree, Nyssa multiflora and the Beech. Tulip Trees 
introduced into the more fertile Morain are winter-killed, except 
when planted under very favorable conditions, and even then are 
subject to being killed by frost at any time. Sassafras comes 
under the same class. 

That the two trees in the Waukegan Cemetery survived the 
winter of 1898, and the one on the grounds of Mr. Douglas was 
killed, was due to the factethat this killing freeze was followed 
by severe rains. The Douglas tree stood on level ground, and 
consequently had a wet foot. Those in the Waukegan Ceme- 
tery were planted near the gutter of a roadway considerably 
lower than the point at which the trees stood, and the soil ab- 
sorbed but little of the rain that fell. It is also evident that 
where the trees have been planted closer to the shores of Lake 
Michigan, and thereby subjected to the lake and the moist-bring- 
ing lake fogs, they survive better than those farther inland. A 
study of the natural vegetation within a few hundred feet of 
the shores of Lake Michigan will tell the story. 

The Beech (Fagus ferruginea), found in groves twenty or 
more miles north of the Wisconsin State line, has been dis- 
tributed toward the head of Lake Michigan within a short dis- 
tance of Chicago. The two groups, one west of Waukegan, 
and one at Highland Park, twenty-four miles north of Chicago, 
are supposed to be native. The other tree referred to is found 
in a private garden, and smaller specimens are found in gardens 
farther toward the head of the lake. 

The late Thomas Douglas, who was born in Waukegan 
when Indians still existed within a short distance of the city, 
at that time a village, was of the opinion that the Beeches at 
Highland Park had been brought there by the pigeons which 
at that time, and still later, infested these forests by the millions. 
The pigeons were fond of beech-nuts, and it is not at all im- 


REGION AT HEAD ‘OF LAKE MICHIGAN: 151 


probable that nuts could have been dropped by the birds, but 
why do we not find groves of Beeches or scattered specimens 
farther south? The pigeons were plentiful everywhere at the 
head of Lake Michigan in those days, and even many years later, 
but there are no Beeches except what have been planted by man. 
Another story has it that those trees were planted by the Indians, 
and I am of the opinion that the Highland Park grove, and those 
west of Waukegan, were planted by the Indians who frequented 
these regions very much, and at Highland Park held council. 
The trees stand close together in a small grove, and cannot be 
compared with the natural groves north of the State line in 
height or dimensions. I do not think any of them measure 
twelve inches in diameter. 

The tree referred to farther south within a few miles of 
Chicago is still smaller and more scrubby in growth, and after 
forty years has attained a height of less than twenty feet, show- 
ing that as we advance toward the head of the lake the Beech 
becomes smaller and finally disappears. 

Referring to the yellow wood mentioned before, its exist- 
ence is partly due to the fertile and well-drained Morain, and 
partly to shelter toward the north and west. 

Considering the Glacial Drift in the lowlands, we must soon 
come to the conclusion that this kind of heavy, poorly-drained 
soil is not adapted for a great variety of trees and shrubs. These 
lands have not been subject to oxidation for as long a period as 
the Morains, that have been above water long before the plains 
arose above the surface of Lake Michigan. 

We have seen that the nearer we get to the head of Lake 
Michigan the less possible it becomes for those specimens de- 
scribed before to live, whether these are planted on the same 
formation or not. So it is with the Beech and Tulip Tree, 
native to this region, and many other species introduced; and 
why is this so?) Study for a moment the map of the lands bor- 
dering Lake Michigan, and consider that our hot winds come 
from the southwest across the plains, and our cold winds from 
the northwest, also across the plains. That these winds cross- 
ing great land areas must be dry is evident. The farther we 
move to the north on either side of Lake Michigan away from 


152 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. -OF “NEW YORE 


the head of the lake, the more we receive these winds across 
the lake, and especially is this so on the eastern side of the lake, 
where both the southwest and the northwest winds must cross 
the lake. That the lake will have a tempering-and a moisture- 
bringing influence on these winds must be evident. 

That the changes brought about are remarkable we all 
know, and that part of southern: Michigan bordering on Lake 
Michigan would never be the fruit-bearing country it is to-day 
if it were not for the effects as stated before. The Beechand 
the west side of the lake is benefited in the same way, and more 
so where the influences of Lake Superior are perceptible, thereby 
changing the character of the northwest winds, and this is where 
we extend into the so-called White-Pine Belt. That the better- 
drained Morain and the greater fertility of these lands must be 
considered when compared with the low, poorly-drained plains, 
and the low, fertile, sandy lands is evident, and the foregoing 
notes have shown this fact. That the Tulip Tree at the head of 
Lake Michigan has reached its western limit in this latitude 
must be conceded, and this is true with many other introduced 
species. So it is that Rhododendrons and Azaleas that beautify 
the Eastern parks and gardens are barred from our plains, not 
on account of colder climate, not on account of soil conditions, 
but on account of the dry winds in extreme cold and extreme hot 
weather that sweep across our western plains, and this is the only 
reason that so many beautiful trees and shrubs are barred from 
our parks and gardens. 


INDEX TO PLANT NAMES 


Abelia 
Abies 

PAGER <: 5 
pviralia.. . . 
Anacardiacez 


38. 136-138 


A 10; TA0, 
- 73; 


maple”. '56, 57, 50, 71, ae 79,80, 83 84, qs 100, DZ 


Apple, Crab 
Arbor-vitz 
Aspen. . 
Aucuba 

_ Azalea 


Bacteria. . 
Barberry 

Barley 

Barley, Spring-sown 
Bean, Castor 
Beans . 

Beech 

Berberis. . . 


petty, Salmon. . . 


ECT oe ats 
Blackberry 

Box 

Broom 

Brussels Sar anis 
Buddleia 3 
Bush, creosote . . 
Buxus . 


Cabbage 
Calhiearpa. . 
Caprifoliaceze 
Caragana 


. 89, 
5 Oy 


' 140, 


123) 72.. BO, G2 


133 


148 


. 106, 150-152 


Rpop 


“803 


130 
89 
23 
116 
132 
131 
890 
133 
49 
122 


93 
133 
133 
fies! 


154 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 


Caryopteris 
Cedar . 
Cedar, Red 
Cedrus 
Celastracez 
Cephalotaxus 
Cercis . 
Cereals 
Cereus 
Chamecyparis 
Cherry . 
Citrus 
Cladrastis 
Clerodendron 
Clover 


Red 


White 


Columbine . 
Colutea 
Conifers 
GOiL .0 2 
Corylopsis . . 
Cotoneaster 
Cottonwood . 
Cress 
Cryptomeria . 
Cucumber . 
Cupressus . 
Currant . 
Cytisus 


Datura 
Diervilla 
Dipsacus 
Draba 


Elder, Box 
Encelia 
Eucalyptus 


OF NEW YORK. 


- TAR 
<2 ee 
- 136, eae 


21, 23; 725 go, 92, 


- 71, 75, Om 
* ° 54, 745 


. 88, 


¥! 79, 103, 
id Il, 71, 74; 


: 23; 75> 89, go, 


». «00; 


Euonymus . 
Evergreens 


Fagus . 


Family, Gooseberry 
Holly 
Honeysuckle . 
Orange 
Pear ave >: 
Verbena . 


Firs 
Fothergilla 
Fouquieria 
Fraxinus 
Fruit . 
Fungi . 
Furze . 


Ginkgo 
Gleditsia . 
Gooseberry 
Grains 
Grape. 
Grape-vines 
Grass, Blue 
Greening 


Hamamelis 
Helianthus 
Hemlock 
Holly 


Ilex 
llicacez . 
Impatiens 


Jimson-weed 
Juniper 
Juniperus 


Kale 


INDEX TO PLANT NAMES. 


: 41, 55-50, 
. 146, 140, 


25305, 137, 
Dlopeer 

- 146, 148, 
eae 


a 14d: 
= 23; 89, 


° 30, 64-67, ZU; TE 76; 82, 


- 31, 32, 
. 60, 


- 47, 


. 140; 


156 HORTICULTURAL _ SOCIETY OF “NEW “YORE 


Labruscas . . 
Iarch sa: 
arin 
Laurel 
Lespedeza-—- 
Ligustrum. . 
Linden 
Liriodendron 
Loganiaceze 
Lonicera 
Lysimachia 


Magnolia 
Mango 
Maple 
Marigold . 
Maze er 


Morning-glory 


Muskmelon . 
Mustard’ "..*. = 
Myrtle, Crepe 


Nasturtium . 


Nightshades .. . 
Nuts, Grenoble . 


Nyssa 
Oak 
Jats, nor 


Oleaceze 
Orange 


Orchard: Peach: *. 


Papilionaceze 
Pea 

Peach . P 
Pear, Prickly 
Pecan. .-*22 
Phaseolus 
Picea . 


5 20-3257. oR. 76, 107, 108, 119, 124-126 


. 146, 147 


. 58-60, 148 

. 56, 58, 106, 16924146 
- 47, 49 

oe x 47; 49 

- 47, 48-50 

p 47; 49 

: eee 

- 47, 49 

.” Ss 

Perea 
146, 147, 149, 150 
aos oe 
- 72, 88, 90, 92, 93 
2 ew, sr! 

. soe ee 

- St, “as 

135 

26 88 


22 


77 
16 


"aR. 108, 133-137 


Pilocereus . . 
Pine-apple 
Pine . 
Pinon. . . 
Pinus: .. 


Plant, Century . 


Sensitive 
Plum 
Pomaceze 
Poplar 
Potato. 
iPrivet: . 
EGHMUS << . 
Pseudolarix 
Pseudotsuga 
Ieteled ss 
EyGus . ... 


Quince 
Quinoa 


Radish 
Raphanus 
Raspberry 
Rhododendron 
Rhubarb 
Rhus 

RA DES, os a. 
Roripa 
Rose 
Rubus 
Rutaces . 
Rye. 


Sambucus 
Sandcherry 
Sassafras 
Sciadopitys 


INDEX TO PLANT NAMES. 
: 38, 39, 54, 70, 103; 100,138, 
= ace 
B75 715, 74 Oly 63; OO% 
a 2Ab On woor 


Mol ESE TAG, 


70, ae oe Bu fa, 
; - 149, 


14051 147, 


Se MINER DELOSUMI sa) ek lee is Oe, ea ARR OAE 


Sphaeralcea 


16 
116 
152 
89 
132 
130 
17 
Vif 
89 
£32 
go 
133 
8I 
150 
140 
85 
By 


158 HORTICULTURAL 


Spiraea 
Spruce “AS 
Douglas . 
Squash 
Stephanandra 
Strawberry . 
Stuartia . 

Sumac 

Sunflower 
Symphoricarpos 


Taxodium . 

Aascsnae. 

Teasel 

Thujopsis 

Thuya 

Timothy . 

Tomato . 

Tree, Apple. 
Avocado . 
Fruit . 


India Rubber. . 


Linden 
Plane 
Tamarind 
Tulip 
Walnut 
Trifolium 
Triticum 
Tropeolum 
Tsuga . 
Turnip 5 Aa 
Tuarmip-indian ~~. 


Ulex 
Ulmus 


Verbenaceze 
Viburnum . 


. , 81, 83, 84, 80, 01; Goa 


OF NEW YORK. 


ae I 
. 385 Fora 
: 713, 
I 
I 
oe) oe I 
: - OF Age 
ne I 
I 
ee 
47; 
I 
I 
a Bee 
> .» 20,20; ame 
- » 147, 148, 150s8 
I 
I 
I 
I 
I 


3I 
08 


54 


89 
09 
27 
55 
27 
58 
58 
27 
52 
22 
16 
16 
47 
41 
92 
22 


Si 
48 


33 
33 


Vitex . 
Witis- . 
Walnut 
Water-cress 


Weicela. . 
Wheat 


Witch-hazel . 


Xanthoxylum 


Yellow-wood 
Yew 


INDEX TO PLANT NAMES. 


© 63, 64-67, 
oa Sel 70, 77> 


2,0; 8, 75,20, OO1L08" 


159 


133 
82 


78 
L7. 
133 
99 
130 
132 


I5I 
141 


le me Pes ha , vite, |) 27 a el 4 ™ - 7 7 


> ne 
Lae v. ” 
+" 1 


Sos rater “ 


tS 


's 
_ 
* 
m, 


x 


‘at 


ay 


at. 
hae 


ae PS 


aS IIS 


eee a ie ate 
eer eee a 


herghitatinag + 


Ape cae 


‘nical Gard 


5185 00289 4150